A Bevy of Boards
Selecting for Success

Choosing your FPGA development board used to be simple and straightforward. You selected a device for your project, called up your distributor, and a few days and dollars later you were the proud owner of "the kit" which included the standard development board, a version of the design software, and maybe a reference design or two. Your new board had an FPGA in the middle, some configuration circuitry and perhaps a couple of peripherals, and a few standard connectors along the edges.

As time passed, your demands increased. With the newer generations of FPGAs, you needed more interfaces, more memory options, and more on-board connectivity. If you were in a specialized field, you probably felt you'd reach breadboard nirvana if they'd just perhaps add the "obscurobus" driver and connector, (known only by you and two buddies at your competitor's company) so that your development system could connect seamlessly to all of your proprietary prototyping platforms.

At the same time, the FPGA companies were getting lots of skepticism from wary designers. "Can your device really interface to DDR2 memory at speed - on a board, and not just in a databook?" Intent on proving their products, FPGA companies responded with bigger, more complex development boards.

The problem with the incredible expanding board was the incredible expanding price tag. The more options, interfaces, connectors and peripherals that went on the board, the more expensive, expansive and complicated the systems became. The bloated board became jack-of-all-trades, master of none, and suppliers started to look for a better way to meet the conflicting needs of demonstration, evaluation, development, prototyping, and even production use.

Today, there are a daunting number of options available in the "useful boards with FPGAs on them" category. Before you slap down the corporate Visa, it pays to know what the choices are, and to match your board carefully to your needs so you and your boss aren't disappointed with the results. [more]