[HH] Learn FPGAs Using Arduino Approach

[Tom Metro]

Learn FPGAs Using Arduino Approach
http://www.microcontrollercentral.com/author.asp?section_id=1758&doc_id=248276&f_src=microcontrollercentral_sitedefault

  The Papilio FPGA board comes with pre-made configuration files that
  turn its Xilinx Spartan 3E FPGA into an Arduino module. I went ahead
  and purchased a Papilio at gadgetfactory.net to see if it would be a
  decent bridge between the FPGA and MCU worlds.
  [...]
  There are a lot of options for those wanting to bridge the MCU-FPGA
  gap. Some are more FPGA and some more MCU. The Papilio hardware is
  more FPGA, but as it's packaged up it's more MCU. It's a pretty
  capable board in general. You can use it as a raw FPGA with a lot of
  I/O pins available, as an Arduino with some unique capabilities, as a
  soft MCU with a good set of I/O, or a combination thereof. One
  important note is that the form factor is not mechanically compatible
  with Arduino shields, so you can't directly plug them in.