Re: [Xylo-SDR] FPGA pin names in schematic

[KD5NWA <kd5nwa@cox.net>]

You didn't find it because I misspelled the company name, it's Digilent
Inc., sorry about that, below is a link to the company. They make the
boards for Xilinx and Xilinx has a real nice deal on development
boards.

Your get two boards with this offer for $99 from Xilinx.

The chip is made by Xilinx and is a superior chip to the one used in the
Xylo board

<

http://www.xilinx.com/xlnx/xebiz/designResources/ip_product_details.jsp?key=HW-SPAR3-CPLD-DK
 >

You get a Spartan 3 200K development board, it has the following
features;
200K logic cells.
500 MHz internal logic speed.
50 MHz clock module built in
12 high speed multipliers built in.
1/4 meg bits internal ram
1MB of high speed external RAM, that can be accessed as 8, 16 or 32 bit
10 ns memory.
4 seven segment displays.
8 individual LED's
8 switches
4 buttons
1 Optional extra clock module socket.
3 40 pin connector for use in connecting to outside devices or boards,
boards are available from Digilent.
1 RS-232 Port
1 VGA video port
PS/2 keyboard/mouse port
serial programming and JTAG connectors

You also get a CPLD development board for the $99 deal with two different
CPLD chips on it. A high capacity Cool Runner II chip with 256 cells and
a XC9572 chip also.

You also get JTAG cables, power supply, CD with development software, and
CD's full of tutorials, and sample projects.

The CPLD board can connect to the Spartan 3  directly, or to another
device via a cable to be a smart I/O board. The CPLD board has a large
breadboard area on it.

A real good deal for $99

You can get plug in boards and devices from the following folks, such as
Ethernet, USB, A/D converters, DAC's, motor drivers, etc;

<

http://www.digilentinc.com/ >

Digilent are the people who make these boards for Xylinx so they have
special versions available, but you do not get the CPLD development
board. The Spartan 3 board I bought uses the 1000K chip instead of the
200K, it has guess what, 5X the logic resources. It also has 2X
multipliers, 2X internal RAM. I will be using it for developing CPU's and
DSP engines, which is a interest of mine, it cost $150.

<

http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?Nav1=Products&Nav2=Programmable&Prod=S3BOARD
 >

The only problem and it's a minor one, is that is made by Xilinx not
Altera, most people on the group use Altera so they are not using the
same software that comes with the kit. However the software are somewhat
similar, and both chips and development software use the same languages
to program the chip, HDL, VHDL, and Verilog and those languages are
supported by both development packages.

Hope I didn't overload you with too much information.


At 12:28 PM 1/20/2006, you wrote:

Cecil,
 
May I ask, where did you aquire the Diligent Spartan3 dev board? Googling didn't produce anything useful.
 
73,
Steve - K5FR
 
 

---

SNIP

Cecil Bayona
KD5NWA
www.qrpradio.com

'Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level then beat you with experience.'