|
Folks Even since the PIC 4550 days I have been thinking on how we
might conduct experiments as well as have a reasonable environment for ‘adding’
on to the project. The obvious answer is a buss of some sort. I have looked at
everything from Simm riser boards to ISA buss stuff. PCI risers might be the
way to go since they are inexpensive ($15) for 3 slot extenders. Also in an end
product they fit into the L-brackets of a computer case, or 2U mounts. They
have ‘assigned’ power buss’ we can use, fairly inexpensive
prototyping boards. ($50 - $60), are four layer and designed to minimize intra
trace noise. The buss wouldn’t be used for PCI, however it would allow
power, (on designated standards based lines), intra board connections, and FPGA,
I2C,signals etc. PCI seems to be a little ‘large’ for what we are
proposing, and the product boards would cost more to produce, however, with an
established buss we could put a radio on one card, FPGA on another Audio on
another etc. $15 Board amongst others: http://www.plinkusa.net/riser.htm Am I off the wall here? Eric |