The Basys 3 is one of the best boards on the market for getting started with FPGA. It is an entry-level development board built around a Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA.

As a complete and ready-to use digital circuit development platform, it includes enough switches, LEDs, and other I/O devices to allow a large number of designs to be completed without the need for any additional hardware. There are also enough uncommitted FPGA I/O pins to allow designs to be expanded using Digilent Pmods or other custom boards and circuits, and all of this at a student-friendly price point.

The Basys 3 is designed exclusively for Xilinx’s Vivado Design Suite, and the WebPACK edition is available as a free download from Xilinx.