buying fpga's

[dmitrip]

Hello,  

I'm new to FPGA's and would appreciate advice or a pointer to useful reference.  

I've been using the virtex 4 and virtex 5 evaluation platforms and would like to understand what happens when I want to get a particular fpga to run something not on an evaluation platform.  Suppose I decide that a particular FPGA from the Virtex 6 family is right for my application (talking to instruments and doing DSP in a physics lab).  What do I get when I order it from Xilinx?  Just an fpga that I should then put on my own pcb?  Is it on a board that already has JTAG pins so I can configure it?  And if I want to use some IO pins to talk to ethernet or an ADC or DAC, should I make a pcb that connects to the fpga in the desired way?  

Thanks for any help or references you may have

[mcgett]

When you buy an FPGA, for instance a XC6VLX240T-1FFG1156C, you are buying just the device.  If you want to use it then you need to design a board that matches the FPGA and have the part assembled on the board.

This is no different then buying any semiconductor IC.

[eteam00]

There are many FPGA-based development boards available from Xilinx, Digilent, and Avnet.  These development boards are (more or less) general purpose designs with considerable flexibility.  If one of these boards can meet your needs, you might save considerable money and time (and design risk!) by purchasing one of these boards rather than designing, fabricating, assembling, and debugging your own custom board.

-- Bob Elkind