I recommend picking up one of the Xilinx-based
Digilent boards. They're
inexpensive and very nice. Xilinx has a freely-downloadable toolchain
(WebPACK) that works very well. It even has "real" Linux support
nowadays. The free stuff supports all but the very largest of their
FPGAs.
Dave, I have everything set up, but still no "start here"...VHDL seems
easy, but I just don't know where to start! :oO
Greetings from Brazil!
Alexandre Souza, PU1BZZ