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**Replacement: **None. We are no longer carrying this device, but check out the rest of our FPGA category. This page is for reference only.
The Cyclone II is a high-density, low-cost FPGA from Altera. The optimized feature set of Cyclone II FPGAs make them ideal solutions for a wide array of automotive, consumer, communications, video processing, test and measurement, and other end-market solutions.
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I tell you whats even harder than soldering it,
Using the altera quartus IDE, and getting a semi decent altera license to do so....
Actually, I use Quartus quite a bit and it's very easy once you understand it. Occasionally, Altera offers low-cost classes on it through distributors (Arrow Electronics does it, for instance). The Arrow classes cost about $100 and include a development kit (currently they are using Cyclone IV). I believe Altera also has some FREE online training videos available, as well.
hah! I thought so at first too. But the deeper you get into development, you'll learn to appreciate Quartus over ISE
I use the quartus program, I love it. There are starter kits out there with basic designs you can work with.
The quartus web edition IDE is actually pretty simple once you get the hang of it, and incredibly powerful. I'm not sure how the licensing is (used it through school), but the "web" version was as simple as filling out a form.
I'm curious how sparkfun is able to sell these guys so cheap? I didn't think Altera sold merchandise in bulk with a discounted price.. From their site, these suckers cost about $20.
72% markup over DigiKey's price for the same part. This is the most expensive place to buy this part by quite a lot.
You're absolutely right, but I've found working on some projects that you can't always get all the parts you want from one place, and have to pay extra shipping charges to order parts from multiple places. Sometimes I would be willing to pay extra for one part because I'm already ordering other parts from the same place. For example, I wanted to order an XBee direct from Digi, but the cheapest shipping price they had was over $50, so I paid a little more to get it from a re-seller that I was already getting other parts from.
"low-cost" ?
I'm not really sure !
The chip has some bent pins in the photo with the rulers :). On the bottom left corner.
What's the point of offering this bare chip without a breakout board, for more than you can buy it direct from Altera? A board on the order of the Spartan 3e board you have here is more suitable.
Seriously? $35? for an 8k Cyclone II? You can get a 16k Cyclone III for $27 off Altera's website and it has 3x the number of multipliers, >3x the RAM, and runs faster. OR you can pick up that exact same Cyclone II part for $20. Why can't we get a decent FPGA for a decent price?
one would have a hard time soldering that
agree, I would like to get a breakout board
http://youtu.be/jlwoOetHAkU
This guys english is pretty good, but you can't see it too well, but it gave me the guts to get working on fine pitch components! a kind of 'huh, it's that easy??' moment! :D