How do I mine with FPGAs? I'm not entirely sure how FPGA's work... 

Do I simply buy a ZTEX and it mines, or do I need to plug it into a computer via USB? 

Can I chain them?

I'm so confused.
The very basic idea of an FPGA is that it can be loaded with a specific firmware (a layout of logical gates, in essence). That page contains the firmware you'd need to load onto a Xilinx FPGA (A Spartan 6) in order to use it as a mining device. ZTEX refers to a suite of the FPGA, and various IO controllers (USB, etc.).

Roughly speaking, the steps you'd need to follow would be:


Buy device
Plug in device to your computer
Load firmware onto device from your computer
Run a piece of software on your computer that interfaces with the firmware now loaded on the FPGA
Profit (in a couple years)


To answer your questions: yes, the device would need to be plugged in to a computer using the method in your link, and yes, you can "chain" them - i.e. have more than one plugged in. I've greatly oversimplified steps 3 &amp; 4, by the way.