I started reading this book and it says to use a now discontinued

>>58982028
You need to program with VHDL and for I/O I think you'd use assembly but not sure

>>58982073
But how do I actually interact with the FPGA? What is a good FPGA to sue in relation to this book? What do I need to make those $25 FPGAs actually programmed and take input and give output.

>>58982181
>But how do I actually interact with the FPGA?
Commands over a serial port usually. Most FPGAs have a software package to do this for you.

>>58982197
What is a serial port? How do i connect that to my computer?

>>58982218

>What is a serial port? How do i connect that to my computer?
Here's a book that's more your level, OP: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781250065001

>>58982218
>What is a serial port?
Stop using FPGAs

>>58982181
Papilios have USB on-board, and a bunch of snap-on daughter boards you can buy with Mickey-mouse peripherals. I'd avoid boards which are JTAG-only, especially for a beginner.

>>58982640
the whole point is that im interested and wanna learn about em, if there are things I need to learn before them then I am happy to learn

When you program the FPGA you can direct the output bits from your top level design to specific pins of the chip which correspond to whichever I/O you are using

Get a board with an altera or xilinx fpga, maybe one of the new SoCs that comes with an ARM processor on-chip

Then just do some tutorials and projects and shit. I recommend checking university websites for digital design classes and trying those

>>58983721
>im interested
Lol, no, you are not.
You are just making up excuses and wasting your life on 4chan.