Invisible wrote:
> So I know there's a fairly diverse set of people in here so... Anybody 
> have any experience with using FPGAs? It's something I've often thought 
> of playing with, but I have no idea (1) how much it costs, and (2) how 
> difficult it is to make something that works.

If you want to fork out $15, I suggest you subscribe to Circuit Cellar's
electronic edition (http://www.circuitcellar.com/). The June edition (not
yet shown on the website, though it is available for download) features a
raytracer implemented in an FPGA. It uses 24-bit fixed-point math, so is
not really useful for assisting POV, but still it's an interesting project
if you're curious about FPGA's. They also use the FPGA to implement a
framebuffer and generate VGA output.

NB you can purchase one-off editions, but that issue isn't yet linked.

-- Chris

PS in answer to your question, FPGA's cost anything from 'very little' to
'too much'. Around here we use some high-end Xilinx devices which IIRC cost
around $600 each - but that series are definitely not hobbyist devices.

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