An Out-Of-Box Experience: Development Kits

FPGA KITS Microcontroller-based kits are the most numerous, but analog and FPGA solutions are available, too. They tend to have a more limited audience and are often more expensive. Likewise, the learning curve usually is steeper. Getting to Plateau 3 may take days to weeks instead of hours.

Altium along with FPGA vendors Altera and Xilinx have some interesting solutions, though they are not exclusive. Note that these companies are feeling the demand for faster evaluation in addition to simpler and less expensive tools. One sample response is Xilinx's Spartan-3 Starter Kit, which costs $99. At the other end of the spectrum is Altium's Nanoboard-NB1. It contains plug-in modules for FPGAs and complex programmable logic devices from a number of vendors.

REFERENCE DESIGNS Looking for a product out-of-the-box? You may be looking for a reference design. They tend to be different from conventional kits, but their end purpose is usually the same—to get developers to use the vendor's product.

Be it a reference design, demo kit, or evaluation kit, developers have a wide range of choices to get hands-on experience at a reasonable cost.