Atmel or FPGA?
Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2007 1:35 pm
Long time no chat.
My Brother is heading off to Iowa State University in the fall seeking an EE degree. He's off to a good start already, having passed out of his first two sem of Calc. I want to get him a gift that would be fun and would give him a further head start on his studies. I contacted the advisor of the EE dept and asked what kinds of uC/FPGA devices they use there. The answer was Atmel for the lower (100/200 level) classes and FPGA for the upper level classes. He said he thinks some profs use arm, and its not unheard of for the BS to pop up now and then. (actually, he said Basic Stamp, but I say BS)
In our projects together we've stuck mostly to small PIC, logic circuits and 555 projects. Doing PIC stuff, I did most of the programming. Anything that had to do with big sparks, magnets and high voltage he did. (typical teenager you know)
I'd like to get him a dev board that he can play with. Something that will give him the satisfaction of quick results with little effort, but will grow with him and guide him in accomplishing practical, useful stuff. He's only done programming in C++/C#/Java/Basic type environments, and honestly, I think high level languages are the way of the future.
Can anyone suggest a development board that I can buy as a gift? Again, the goal is
* ready to go and start using with little effort (easy to learn, all necessary parts included)
* Atmel or FPGA
* high level language
* can do practical stuff with it
* USB (or works with USB->serial converter)
Any suggestions for choosing between Atmel or FPGA? I'm not sure what the pros of each are, though I'm guessing that Atmel mcus are cheaper so if he lets the smoke out or wants to build a permanent circuit the atmel chips might be more practical. Seems FPGA is taking hold of the professional world though, so maybe that will serve him better in the long run.
My Brother is heading off to Iowa State University in the fall seeking an EE degree. He's off to a good start already, having passed out of his first two sem of Calc. I want to get him a gift that would be fun and would give him a further head start on his studies. I contacted the advisor of the EE dept and asked what kinds of uC/FPGA devices they use there. The answer was Atmel for the lower (100/200 level) classes and FPGA for the upper level classes. He said he thinks some profs use arm, and its not unheard of for the BS to pop up now and then. (actually, he said Basic Stamp, but I say BS)
In our projects together we've stuck mostly to small PIC, logic circuits and 555 projects. Doing PIC stuff, I did most of the programming. Anything that had to do with big sparks, magnets and high voltage he did. (typical teenager you know)
I'd like to get him a dev board that he can play with. Something that will give him the satisfaction of quick results with little effort, but will grow with him and guide him in accomplishing practical, useful stuff. He's only done programming in C++/C#/Java/Basic type environments, and honestly, I think high level languages are the way of the future.
Can anyone suggest a development board that I can buy as a gift? Again, the goal is
* ready to go and start using with little effort (easy to learn, all necessary parts included)
* Atmel or FPGA
* high level language
* can do practical stuff with it
* USB (or works with USB->serial converter)
Any suggestions for choosing between Atmel or FPGA? I'm not sure what the pros of each are, though I'm guessing that Atmel mcus are cheaper so if he lets the smoke out or wants to build a permanent circuit the atmel chips might be more practical. Seems FPGA is taking hold of the professional world though, so maybe that will serve him better in the long run.