Post
Topic
Board Beginners & Help
Re: Introduction and Question about FPGA
by
DeathAndTaxes
on 26/01/2013, 23:24:43 UTC
Gabi wasn't trying to be rude.  Blunt is more likely we see lots of similar posts pretty much on a daily basis.

ASICs will utterly destroy the economics of FPGA.  This isn't like Intel making a new CPU which is 2x as powerful and uses 30% less electricity then current CPU it would be like Intel releasing a processor which is 5000% as powerful and uses 90% less electricity.

If you really want to mess around with FPGA you can look to buy a development board and licenses for software necessary to create and flash bitstreams.  Understand that it is going to cost you hundreds of dollars (thousands for higher end FPGA) and you have absolutely no chance of making anything which will be profitable.   Most Bitcoin mining boards use the Spartan 6 series FPGA (Xilinx XC6SLX150) not because it is particularly powerful but because it is pretty much the cheapest FPGA on a LUTS/$ scale.

Honestly FPGA is a complete dead end.  If you want to do something interesting using electronics skills look to build a "hardware wallet" which can keep private keys secure from a compromised general purpose computer.  Not only is that far more interesting but it has the potential to generate revenue.