http://valentfx.com/logi-pi/ http://valentfx.com/logi-pi/ (or logibone) is reasonably good, it's a Spartan6 LX9, easily programmable via SPI, and you can commun

http://valentfx.com/logi-pi/ http://valentfx.com/logi-pi/ (or logibone) is reasonably good, it's a Spartan6 LX9, easily programmable via SPI, and you can communicate with your design using the same SPI, easily clocked up to 30mbps. For bigger designs (e.g., a full OpenRISC SoC fits, with ethernet and VGA and all that) you can use Digilent Atlys board, it's cheap for students (although communicating with it is a bit more complicated).