Wil Florentino
Xilinx

Many development systems claim to offer a "quick start" toward feature evaluation and a simple out-of-the box experience. Getting the device set up sometimes takes more energy than running your first program. Unfortunately, getting up and running could mean loading CD files, setting jumpers, downloading code, or hooking up banks of headers. This article introduces Xilinx's solution: the "Out-of-the-Box Guarantee," beginning with the Spartan family of starter kits. When you open the box, you will have all of the key hardware components that will quickly highlight some features of the FPGA device as soon as you turn it on.