Short version: I write FPGA code for a living: don't buy this kit. Get a Xilinx MicroZed, Zed, or Altera SoCKIT. It is a revolutionary improvement over what is offered in this kickstarter at a similar price point.
Long version: If you're interested in HDL and coming from the processor world (ARM), consider the Xilinx Zed, MicroZed, or Altera SoCKIT. The Zed is $400 (slightly less with an academic discount), the MicroZed $200, and I believe you can get an Altera SoCKIT board for $100 if you attend the training (if not, it's expensive at $1600). For a hobbyist, I would probably choose the MicroZed since it's the cheapest to buy straight-out at $200, or Zed if you wanted some of the PMod peripherals.
Any of the above boards offer significant advantages over the LOGi FPGA. The Spartan 6 LX9 is disappointing as a choice, as it's a very small, last-generation device. The current SoC offerings from both Altera and Xilinx pair a processor subsystem (PS) (dual Cortex A9) with a programmable logic (PL) subsystem via an array of standard ARM interfaces (AXI). I believe all of the Xilinx/Altera offerings have between 2,000 and 3,000 built-in connections between the PS and PL. This is a tremendous advantage and offers ridiculous amounts of bandwidth between the PS and PL. It allows unprecedented cooperation between the PL and PS that leads to significantly better performance than is possible with a discrete processor and FPGA combination.
I'm curious as to what aspect of Altera's offering you find more powerful than Xilinx? The SocKIT is $1600, although they're practically giving them away if you attend the training ($100 I think for the training and the kit). The MicroZed is $200, the Zed $400. Sure, it's a smaller logic density device, but it works for proof-of-concept. I also like the inclusion of the many PMod adapters on the Zed board as opposed to the SoCKIT.
In general I find the devices are roughly equivalent. I would probably give the advantage to Xilinx for including the on-chip-memory on the processor subsystem side. I haven't looked at Altera as much, since they weren't ready in time for our application. I will say that I am extremely impressed by the Artix and Kintex fabrics. My impression was that Altera made a major mis-step at this node.
In my opinion, any of the above boards is a significantly better choice than an LX9.
I write FPGA code for a living, more in VHDL than Verilog, and more for Xilinx than Altera.
I would actually recommend that you don't buy a board at first. You can pick one out so you can decide on a vendor's chip, that's fine, but simulate everything, because that's what HDL design is all about. Both vendors offer a free version of their toolset and there's a free simulator with each of those. Or you can download ModelSim Starter edition. I wouldn't call either one Linux friendly.
As far as the board goes, I would recommend one of Altera's Nios II Embedded Dev Kits. I feel that although Altera has a slightly steeper learning curve than Xilinx, they also have a nicer overall package than what Xilinx is currently offering. I'm speaking from the point of embedding a soft processor though, if that doesn't interest you, then either of the cheap Altera Cyclone or Xilinx Spartan kits will get the job done.
I haven't found a Verilog book of similar quality.
Buy several books on Verification and testbench writing. That's where the real work comes in, and it's significantly more work than whatever circuit design you're doing. Spend the time to learn how to write self-checking testbenches.
Read over the Synthesis guides for whatever vendor's board you choose. Understand how the constructs you use affect synthesis. There's a wealth of information in the Xilinx and Altera online documentation. There's also a lot of really of good snippets of code which are themselves useful but also typically contrast less and more effective constructs for synthesis.
And finally, I will echo the caution that HDL is not a programming language, it is a design language. If you do not have a fundamental grasp of circuits, logic design, and computer architecture, I would recommend you pursue those topics first.
What right does my ISP have to individually charge every conceivable web site that I might access?
The same right as the music/movie industry has to charge you for multiple DRM'ed versions of the same piece of media so that you can access said media more than once/on different devices/at all.
[i]This seems like a show-stopper to me for anyone wanting to exchange data with non-Vista users, especially if the default is to use the Vista-only format. The fact that I haven't heard this complaint before makes me suspicious that it's something unique to his setup, but not being a Windows user I have no basis to judge.[/i]
This is indeed true. Vista uses what Microsoft calls "Live File System" for burning CDs, DVDs, etc., which is only compatible with XP and later, and it is the default. The option still exists to burn disks in UDF, or "Master" format, but 99% of users aren't going to know how to do that.
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Short version: I write FPGA code for a living: don't buy this kit. Get a Xilinx MicroZed, Zed, or Altera SoCKIT. It is a revolutionary improvement over what is offered in this kickstarter at a similar price point.
Long version: If you're interested in HDL and coming from the processor world (ARM), consider the Xilinx Zed, MicroZed, or Altera SoCKIT. The Zed is $400 (slightly less with an academic discount), the MicroZed $200, and I believe you can get an Altera SoCKIT board for $100 if you attend the training (if not, it's expensive at $1600). For a hobbyist, I would probably choose the MicroZed since it's the cheapest to buy straight-out at $200, or Zed if you wanted some of the PMod peripherals.
Any of the above boards offer significant advantages over the LOGi FPGA. The Spartan 6 LX9 is disappointing as a choice, as it's a very small, last-generation device. The current SoC offerings from both Altera and Xilinx pair a processor subsystem (PS) (dual Cortex A9) with a programmable logic (PL) subsystem via an array of standard ARM interfaces (AXI). I believe all of the Xilinx/Altera offerings have between 2,000 and 3,000 built-in connections between the PS and PL. This is a tremendous advantage and offers ridiculous amounts of bandwidth between the PS and PL. It allows unprecedented cooperation between the PL and PS that leads to significantly better performance than is possible with a discrete processor and FPGA combination.
I'm curious as to what aspect of Altera's offering you find more powerful than Xilinx? The SocKIT is $1600, although they're practically giving them away if you attend the training ($100 I think for the training and the kit). The MicroZed is $200, the Zed $400. Sure, it's a smaller logic density device, but it works for proof-of-concept. I also like the inclusion of the many PMod adapters on the Zed board as opposed to the SoCKIT.
In general I find the devices are roughly equivalent. I would probably give the advantage to Xilinx for including the on-chip-memory on the processor subsystem side. I haven't looked at Altera as much, since they weren't ready in time for our application. I will say that I am extremely impressed by the Artix and Kintex fabrics. My impression was that Altera made a major mis-step at this node.
In my opinion, any of the above boards is a significantly better choice than an LX9.
I write FPGA code for a living, more in VHDL than Verilog, and more for Xilinx than Altera.
I would actually recommend that you don't buy a board at first. You can pick one out so you can decide on a vendor's chip, that's fine, but simulate everything, because that's what HDL design is all about. Both vendors offer a free version of their toolset and there's a free simulator with each of those. Or you can download ModelSim Starter edition. I wouldn't call either one Linux friendly.
As far as the board goes, I would recommend one of Altera's Nios II Embedded Dev Kits. I feel that although Altera has a slightly steeper learning curve than Xilinx, they also have a nicer overall package than what Xilinx is currently offering. I'm speaking from the point of embedding a soft processor though, if that doesn't interest you, then either of the cheap Altera Cyclone or Xilinx Spartan kits will get the job done.
This is the only book you need on VHDL: The Designer's Guide to VHDL by Peter Ashenden.
I haven't found a Verilog book of similar quality.
Buy several books on Verification and testbench writing. That's where the real work comes in, and it's significantly more work than whatever circuit design you're doing. Spend the time to learn how to write self-checking testbenches.
Read over the Synthesis guides for whatever vendor's board you choose. Understand how the constructs you use affect synthesis. There's a wealth of information in the Xilinx and Altera online documentation. There's also a lot of really of good snippets of code which are themselves useful but also typically contrast less and more effective constructs for synthesis.
And finally, I will echo the caution that HDL is not a programming language, it is a design language. If you do not have a fundamental grasp of circuits, logic design, and computer architecture, I would recommend you pursue those topics first.
What right does my ISP have to individually charge every conceivable web site that I might access?
The same right as the music/movie industry has to charge you for multiple DRM'ed versions of the same piece of media so that you can access said media more than once/on different devices/at all.
[i]This seems like a show-stopper to me for anyone wanting to exchange data with non-Vista users, especially if the default is to use the Vista-only format. The fact that I haven't heard this complaint before makes me suspicious that it's something unique to his setup, but not being a Windows user I have no basis to judge.[/i] This is indeed true. Vista uses what Microsoft calls "Live File System" for burning CDs, DVDs, etc., which is only compatible with XP and later, and it is the default. The option still exists to burn disks in UDF, or "Master" format, but 99% of users aren't going to know how to do that.
Most laptops have an option in the BIOS to encrypt the disk with a password that must be entered on boot-up.
Most Operating Systems have a way to encrypt any folder on a disk so that the contents are, well, encrypted.
Not a whole lot of reasons why your laptop shouldn't have already been protected.