According to the manufacturer, http://www.embeddedarm.com/products/board-detail.php?product=TS-7800 boots to Linux in 0.69 second. It's a 500MHz ARM-9 based system. I haven't used this board, but I've used others from the same manufacturer; the Linux they provide is Debian-based on the boards I've used.

Mod parent up +insightful.

I've been programming for over 25 years, most of that at the firmware/driver level in C. I went on a hardware quest (for my own edification) about a year ago, and I did an independent study course for credit at my local university. My focus was on Verilog (because that's what's used within my company), and it was truly a different beast than programming! I definitely had to train myself to think differently to accomplish that.

There are many good boards suggested by others in this thread. I used three boards myself. The first board I used was http://www.xgamestation.com/view_product.php?id=40 - containing a Lattice Semiconductor CPLD. The board was a good starter because it was designed for education, and included a lab manual of quite a few projects. Potential downside: the lab manual and tools it comes with are not based on either Verilog or VHDL, but rather ABEL. I did everything in Verilog instead, and still used the lab manual as a source of exercises. The Mach64 board is fairly inexpensive.


I also used a board from http://www.opalkelly.com/ -- this product is a little pricey as an educational device. Their hardware contains Xilinx parts. What I liked most about it though is its USB interface -- first, you can use their tool to download your hardware description without being required to flash the board (where many other boards require you to flash the image to exercise it). Second, and more interesting to me -- Opal Kelly's boards include virtual device libraries, letting you attach hardware to USB-carried channels for data I/O and triggering to a remote application. They include a library to allow you to write a remote application to support the other end of this. I don't know if they support Linux though -- everything I did on the PC end was under Windows.


Finally, a reasonably priced board is http://www.embeddedarm.com/products/board-detail.php?product=TS-7300. This board is not centered around its FPGA, instead it's an ARM9 based CPU board. The board includes full embedded Linux support and all the typical devices you would expect to find, and it has a user-accessible Altera FPGA on board. Their linux distribution includes a tool to send a FPGA bitstream over to the device, letting you quickly test a new hardware description (like the Opal Kelly board, without programming flash). Potential downside here... the manufacturer includes a bitstream image that is used by default, which enables (among other things) its VGA port and a second Ethernet interface - and their open source Verilog for this device doesn't include those, so you sacrifice some of the board to define your own hardware. You don't sacrifice anything you can't use the board without though (there's another Ethernet port; there's a few serial ports, etc., which don't require the FPGA).


Good luck!

I have nothing to add, but how could I possibly not reply to this.

Thank you for honoring me so!

About three years ago I was in Korea, contracting at a mobile phone manufacturer for a while. Their latest phone (Pantech... I can't recall the model number but it was destined for the Russian market) had an accelerometer and they had experimental software to allow you to dial by "Drawing" your numbers in the air. It definitely looked silly to see someone using this, as you had to draw fairly large numbers to make it work, but it worked.

If a jury listens to the original, and then listens to what you're pondering might no longer be the same, and concludes they're the same... time to open your wallet?

I've interviewed many a candidate with a strong academic background (masters, perhaps some PhD work), little to zero experience, and what showed up in the interview: little to zero comprehension of the issues that would be important on the job. I've also interviewed candidates with weak academic backgrounds (uncompleted undergrads) but a few years of experience, and what showed up in the interview: they had the ability to listen and learn, and were interested in the job because of their own passion (versus feeling that their degree made it the only option).

I'm not saying a degree makes one unqualified, of course... I'm just saying that an unqualified statement such as As someone without any education at all, I'd say go for the Masters, then get your experience after that. No? really doesn't look at any relevant issues.

> If no response happens, leave it the hell alone and get the hell out as soon as possible.
That's the worst advice one could follow. If you don't care, to the point that you'll just walk away, don't even bother to "question the situation politely and in firm terms", just cave in from the start.

If you're not willing to stand up for yourself, either the situation isn't important to you or you don't deserve better than what you're receiving. If a mugger points a gun at you and demands your wallet, give it to them -- if you don't, you'll lose more than your wallet. If a person in authority oversteps their bounds, protest to the furthest legal extent that you can. If you don't, you won't bring attention to the problem and thus you only contribute towards making things worse.

From a friend of mine, his story went something like this:

My friend had been pulled over for what he felt was something bogus...
Friend: Is it illegal for me to call you an asshole?
Cop: Yes.
Friend: Is it illegal for me to think you're an asshole?
Cop: No.
Friend: I think you're an asshole.

-----

Different story, from my youth... a rent-a-cop was hassling me over some nonsense, when I was driving into the US Army-controlled area I worked in at the time.
Me: Were you born an asshole, or did you work at it your whole life?
Rent-a-cop: Wait right there //call's MPs//

-----

Moral of the stories: Telling the truth can get you in trouble. So can asking questions.

It's a fair assumption that it might open QT Solutions up.

Related... I've got a Qt developer's license and I never purchased Qt Solutions. I recently discovered that Nokia has decided to retroactively give Qt Solutions to anyone with a developer license.

So that's two un-trips you have to not cancel?

> If the DoD wanted to provide a photo of the general in front of a flag, then they should have submitted a photo of her taken in front of a flag. [army.mil]
Umm.... what makes you think that photo was taken in front of a flag, versus just having the flag photoshopped in?

If "IJ" means Indiana Jones, as I think it does, this whole argument is flawed as there have only been three Indiana Jones movies. The original Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and Last Crusade.

IJ4? Sheesh. Like that'll ever happen.

They're not trying to lock people out of their hardware, though that's the perspective of tech geeks (like myself) who want the freedom to mix and match technologies until we build our perfect setup.

What they are trying to do is lock people into their hardware. Their intent is to get people (in volumes that far outwight the tech geek population) to use their product and then find themselves inconvenienced should they later decide to upgrade to competing products. If they can make it more convenient for Joe Consumer's next purchase to be one of their own products rather than what another company offers, they secure their own financial future. Joe Consumer isn't looking that far down the road and isn't planning to use the product in a manner exceeding the manufacturer's expectations, so Joe Consumer makes his purchase without considering these issues.

Ideally, they are the same. Pragmatically, there are differences.