Re: Buy one Xilinx 300K gate SPARTAN IIE and get 4

["Eric" <englere.geo@yahoo.com>]

I'm not prejudiced - I know equally little about Altera and Xilinx :-)

I've heard people say that Altera is easier to learn, but may have less
integration?

One of my main concerns is the availability of low-cost boards and
development IDEs. I'm not interested in the limited "teaser" versions,
and I can't affford high-end professional tools.

What would it take to do some serious hobby work with FPGAs (with an
eye towards the Apple II, of course)?

Are there any "dummy" style level 100 books that cover modern devices?

Eric