Xilinx

About

 * Who is Xilinx? http://www.xilinx.com/
 * What FPGAs do they offer? http://www.xilinx.com/products/silicon-devices/fpga/index.htm
 * Papilio is a development platform we have been experimenting with to get our feet with the Spartan 3E. Here is a link to our wiki page on it.

Development Environment
There is a gigantic development environment you have to download and set up to get started. The Papilio folks also have some instructions. Be not afraid, here's what to do:

Windows

 * Download the Windows installers here and follow the instructions

Linux (Ubuntu)

 * Download the Linux installers here
 * Yea you're going to have to get an account with Xilinx, sorry. It's free at least.
 * Vivado Full Installer for Linux (No SDK) or All OS Vivado and SDK Full Installer is fine, be prepared it's at least 3.6GB download.
 * Extract the downloaded archive into it's own directory then from the command line type:
 * TODO: any options that you should do that are different from default (I don't think there are any)
 * TODO: any 64-bit gotchas, keep track when Abe does his install
 * May need to apt-get some dependencies in the process, list an appropriate apt-get install one-liner here.