FPGA PCI BOARD .. Few Questions

[Sink0]

I am designing myself a FPGA board to interact with a PCI Bus and i hav
couple questions.

First, Is it mandatory to have 2 power layers (GND + VCC)?

Second, i just got a quote from a PCB manufactury and it should cost m
$250 to make a board. Is it possible to find a cheaper board? The cheapes
i found was Dragon Board from Knjn with a price of $300. Once i heare
about a Insight Eletronics Board but i could not find it ...

Any sugestions?

Thats all for now!!

Thank you!



---------------------------------------
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[Brian Drummond]

On Wed, 18 Aug 2010 06:59:58 -0500, "Sink0" <sink00@n_o_s_p_a_m.gmail.com>
wrote:

I am designing myself a FPGA board to interact with a PCI Bus and i have
couple questions.

First, Is it mandatory to have 2 power layers (GND + VCC)?

Second, i just got a quote from a PCB manufactury and it should cost me
$250 to make a board. Is it possible to find a cheaper board? The cheapest
i found was Dragon Board from Knjn with a price of $300. Once i heared
about a Insight Eletronics Board but i could not find it ...

Any sugestions?

Enterpoint have ready made boards, with lots of expansion I/O, and example PCI
driver software (not trivial!) within your price range. The most likely
candidate:

http://www.enterpoint.co.uk/moelbryn/raggedstone1.html

Also, PCIe boards are worth considering as an alternative.

- Brian

 

[Nico Coesel]

"Sink0" <sink00@n_o_s_p_a_m.gmail.com> wrote:

I am designing myself a FPGA board to interact with a PCI Bus and i have
couple questions.

First, Is it mandatory to have 2 power layers (GND + VCC)?

No. Just look at cheap network cards; they are two layer boards.

Second, i just got a quote from a PCB manufactury and it should cost me
$250 to make a board. Is it possible to find a cheaper board? The cheapest

If you go for 2 layers then it should cost much less (depending on the
board size).

--
Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply
indicates you are not using the right tools...
nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.)
--------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Bryan]

Insight Electronics was a Memec company, and Memec was acquired by
Avnet in 2005. The board to which you are referring is a Spartan-2
PCI board, which you can find here: www.em.avnet.com/spartan2pci for
$295. Spartan-2 was the last Xilinx device to be 5V tolerant, so this
board is 100% PCI compliant. Avnet also has a Spartan-3 based PCI
board as well, but it uses level shifters and is not 100% compliant --
www.em.avnet.com/spartan3-evl. When I just looked, I don't see any
stock for the Spartan-3 Eval boards. Both these boards require a PCI
license from Xilinx to do development -- www.xilinx.com/pci.

I agree with Brian that you should definitely consider PCIe. Xilinx
Spartan-6 LXT has embedded transceivers and PCIe block, so you can do
PCIe development without consuming logic resources in your FPGA and
with no extra licensing cost. You could consider the SP605 --
www.xilinx.com/sp605, $495, or upgrade to the Avnet S6LX150T board --
www.em.avnet.com/spartan6lx150t-dev, $995.

Bryan

On Aug 18, 7:59 am, "Sink0" <sink00@n_o_s_p_a_m.gmail.com> wrote:

I am designing myself a FPGA board to interact with a PCI Bus and i have
couple questions.

First, Is it mandatory to have 2 power layers (GND + VCC)?

Second, i just got a quote from a PCB manufactury and it should cost me
$250 to make a board. Is it possible to find a cheaper board? The cheapest
i found was Dragon Board from Knjn with a price of $300. Once i heared
about a Insight Eletronics Board but i could not find it ...

Any sugestions?

Thats all for now!!

Thank you!

---------------------------------------        
Posted throughhttp://www.FPGARelated.com

 

[Sink0]

Hmmm i agree that if that board was intended to be used on a norma
computer PCIe would be a much better option, but it is just a intermediat
board becouse the final one is going to be used on a PC/104+ board tha
does not have PCIe. But so for i do not have the PC/104 processor board.

The cheappest board they sell at Enterpoint got a good price, $225 + VA
but they are out of stock. They sell a PCI/104 board too.. that is a ver
useful information. I am going to develop myself a PCI bridge to FPGA so
wont have to pay for any IP. I am taking as reference a IP core that
found at OpenCores.

And finaly i am using quickswiths myself to make the board universal. T
have a only 3.3V board would be a problem as many computers have 5V onl
PCI bus. Thank you for all the sugestions and answers guys. If some on
else knows any available board with that price i am still acceptin
sugestions. I will put all my efforts on making my board double layers, bu
at the final board it is going to be 4 layers anyway.

Cya

---------------------------------------
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[glen herrmannsfeldt]

Bryan <bryan.fletcher@avnet.com> wrote:

Insight Electronics was a Memec company, and Memec was acquired by
Avnet in 2005. The board to which you are referring is a Spartan-2
PCI board, which you can find here: www.em.avnet.com/spartan2pci for
$295. Spartan-2 was the last Xilinx device to be 5V tolerant, so this
board is 100% PCI compliant. Avnet also has a Spartan-3 based PCI
board as well, but it uses level shifters and is not 100% compliant --
www.em.avnet.com/spartan3-evl. When I just looked, I don't see any
stock for the Spartan-3 Eval boards. Both these boards require a PCI
license from Xilinx to do development -- www.xilinx.com/pci.

I thought if you had the right notches a PCI board wouldn't fit
in a 5V slot. That would seem easier than adding level shifters.

-- glen

 

[RCIngham]

I am going to develop myself a PCI bridge to FPGA so i
wont have to pay for any IP. I am taking as reference a IP core that i
found at OpenCores.

"Good luck with that!"

From personal experience, PCI is a rather tricky standard to design to.



---------------------------------------
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[John Adair]

I asked the office to check as the website stock levels are not
totally live and accurate and we have had a run of sales on these
lately. We have 2 Hollybush1 HB1-400C and 1 HB1-1500C and we can make
more on our assembly line fairly quickly as we have stock for all of
the parts for them.

John Adair
Enterpoint Ltd.

On 18 Aug, 23:54, "Sink0" <sink00@n_o_s_p_a_m.n_o_s_p_a_m.gmail.com>
wrote:

Hmmm i agree that if that board was intended to be used on a normal
computer PCIe would be a much better option, but it is just a intermediate
board becouse the final one is going to be used on a PC/104+ board that
does not have PCIe. But so for i do not have the PC/104 processor board.

The cheappest board they sell at Enterpoint got a good price, $225 + VAT
but they are out of stock. They sell a PCI/104 board too.. that is a very
useful information. I am going to develop myself a PCI bridge to FPGA so i
wont have to pay for any IP. I am taking as reference a IP core that i
found at OpenCores.

And finaly i am using quickswiths myself to make the board universal. To
have a only 3.3V board would be a problem as many computers have 5V only
PCI bus. Thank you for all the sugestions and answers guys. If some one
else knows any available board with that price i am still accepting
sugestions. I will put all my efforts on making my board double layers, but
at the final board it is going to be 4 layers anyway.

Cya        

---------------------------------------        
Posted throughhttp://www.FPGARelated.com

 

[Sink0]

I asked the office to check as the website stock levels are not
totally live and accurate and we have had a run of sales on these
lately. We have 2 Hollybush1 HB1-400C and 1 HB1-1500C and we can make
more on our assembly line fairly quickly as we have stock for all of
the parts for them.

Thank you very much for the information. I am going to talk with my othe
team members to discuss that. Can you answer me if you can write down o
the bill a lower price than the board cost? Thats becouse i live in Brazi
and here i would have to pay 88% of taxes to goverment.. My second proble
would be that i still need a Xilinx USB download cable (we do not have an
paralel potr available). A clone would cost me $80 with my usual chines
eletronic supplier.. thats something i must take in consideration becous
we already have an Altera one.

Thank you very much for all the answers!!

---------------------------------------
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[Frank Buss]

Sink0 wrote:

Thank you very much for the information. I am going to talk with my other
team members to discuss that. Can you answer me if you can write down on
the bill a lower price than the board cost? Thats becouse i live in Brazil
and here i would have to pay 88% of taxes to goverment..

Do you really think he wants to help you with tax fraud? And do you expect
a public commitment to underhand dealings in this newsgroup?

--
Frank Buss, fb@frank-buss.de
http://www.frank-buss.de, http://www.it4-systems.de

 

[Sink0]

Do you really think he wants to help you with tax fraud? And do you
expect
a public commitment to underhand dealings in this newsgroup?

--
Frank Buss, fb@frank-buss.de
http://www.frank-buss.de, http://www.it4-systems.de

Yea thats true, i am sorry.. i did a great mistake on that post, even if it
was not about this subject, this newsgroup is not suposed to be used for
comercial transactions or commitments. Sorry. Is there any way to delet
taht post?

Back to FPGA design... I am using a cyclone II for my design with 208
Pins.. but just Bank 1 and Bank 3 have PCI clamp diodes.. Am i going to
have any problem to use Banks that are placed physicaly at the oposit side
of each other to run a PCI bus? As i am using quickswitchs approach, do i
really need PCI clamp diodes? And is it really recomended to place all the
PCI data IOs (32 bit bus) at the same bank?

Thank you, sorry about my other post again!

---------------------------------------
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[John Adair]

Price modification for duty and taxation is something we can't do for
obvious reasons. We have met the issue of very high taxes in Brazil
before and it's a very big barrier to get getting modern technology
into your country. One thing you didn't say was if this for a
commercial or academic project. We do have academic discounts for
students and universities that pass validation criteria.

On programming cables our USB Prog3 cable is an option with this
board. It operates seemlessly with Xilinx software tools and doesn't
need any other software or drivers other than come with Xilinx
software. It's a similar price to the Chinese option.

John Adair
Enterpoint Ltd.

On 19 Aug, 13:24, "Sink0" <sink00@n_o_s_p_a_m.n_o_s_p_a_m.gmail.com>
wrote:

I asked the office to check as the website stock levels are not
totally live and accurate and we have had a run of sales on these
lately. We have 2 Hollybush1 HB1-400C and 1 HB1-1500C and we can make
more on our assembly line fairly quickly as we have stock for all of
the parts for them.

Thank you very much for the information. I am going to talk with my other
team members to discuss that. Can you answer me if you can write down on
the bill a lower price than the board cost? Thats becouse i live in Brazil
and here i would have to pay 88% of taxes to goverment.. My second problem
would be that i still need a Xilinx USB download cable (we do not have any
paralel potr available). A clone would cost me $80 with my usual chinese
eletronic supplier.. thats something i must take in consideration becouse
we already have an Altera one.

Thank you very much for all the answers!!          

---------------------------------------        
Posted throughhttp://www.FPGARelated.com

 

[Sink0]

Price modification for duty and taxation is something we can't do for
obvious reasons. We have met the issue of very high taxes in Brazil
before and it's a very big barrier to get getting modern technology
into your country. One thing you didn't say was if this for a
commercial or academic project. We do have academic discounts for
students and universities that pass validation criteria.

On programming cables our USB Prog3 cable is an option with this
board. It operates seemlessly with Xilinx software tools and doesn't
need any other software or drivers other than come with Xilinx
software. It's a similar price to the Chinese option.

Its for Academic Purposes on Universidade de SĂŁo Paulo here in Brazil. Ca
you give me your e-mail for further questions? I just found out that i won
have the Quickswiths ICs on my hand fast enough becouse i am going to Spai
at September 19 but would be very good to have the board on my hands
weeks before i go and it takes 3 weeks to arrive.

Thank you!

---------------------------------------
Posted through http://www.FPGARelated.com

 

[Sink0]

Price modification for duty and taxation is something we can't do for
obvious reasons. We have met the issue of very high taxes in Brazil
before and it's a very big barrier to get getting modern technology
into your country. One thing you didn't say was if this for a
commercial or academic project. We do have academic discounts for
students and universities that pass validation criteria.

On programming cables our USB Prog3 cable is an option with this
board. It operates seemlessly with Xilinx software tools and doesn't
need any other software or drivers other than come with Xilinx
software. It's a similar price to the Chinese option.


Its for Academic Purposes on Universidade de SĂŁo Paulo here in Brazil
Can
you give me your e-mail for further questions? I just found out that
wont
have the Quickswiths ICs on my hand fast enough becouse i am going t
Spain
at September 19 but would be very good to have the board on my hands 2
weeks before i go and it takes 3 weeks to arrive.

Thank you!

---------------------------------------
Posted through http://www.FPGARelated.com

Just to complement my last post, i think a CPLD board that could work as
PCI o local bus bridge would be a nice one too. With a very low price..
could find one at Altera for 150 USD but i still have to solve tax problem
over here.

Cya!

---------------------------------------
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[John Adair]

Best thing to do is contact through the general email boardsales AT
enterpoint DOT co DOT uk. Either myself or one of my team can answer
questions there.

John Adair
Enterpoint Ltd.

On 20 Aug, 02:04, "Sink0" <sink00@n_o_s_p_a_m.n_o_s_p_a_m.gmail.com>
wrote:

Price modification for duty and taxation is something we can't do for
obvious reasons. We have met the issue of very high taxes in Brazil
before and it's a very big barrier to get getting modern technology
into your country. One thing you didn't say was if this for a
commercial or academic project. We do have academic discounts for
students and universities that pass validation criteria.

On programming cables our USB Prog3 cable is an option with this
board. It operates seemlessly with Xilinx software tools and doesn't
need any other software or drivers other than come with Xilinx
software. It's a similar price to the Chinese option.

Its for Academic Purposes on Universidade de Săo Paulo here in Brazil. Can
you give me your e-mail for further questions? I just found out that i wont
have the Quickswiths ICs on my hand fast enough becouse i am going to Spain
at September 19 but would be very good to have the board on my hands 2
weeks before i go and it takes 3 weeks to arrive.  

Thank you!        

---------------------------------------        
Posted throughhttp://www.FPGARelated.com

 

[Sink0]

Best thing to do is contact through the general email boardsales AT
enterpoint DOT co DOT uk. Either myself or one of my team can answer
questions there.

John Adair
Enterpoint Ltd.

Thank you, just sent a e-mail. My name is Luis Filipe Rossi for reference


Cya

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