Low cost FPGA dev board with high speed i/f?

[Dave]

Hi guys and gals,

Could I call on your collective experience and expertise?

I'd like to get hold of an FPGA development board for a data streaming
project. Requirements are as follows:

- Low cost (around 200 UK pounds ideally).
- At least 16 i/os routed out to connectors.
- High speed cabled interface to a PC, capable of sustaining a
streaming rate of at least 15Mbits/s. I've been considering USB2 or
100M Ethernet for this.
- Enough onboard RAM to ensure continuous data transfer to software
running on a Windoze PC.
- Single power supply @ 5V or 3.3V.

The best boards I've found so far are:

Cyclone FPGA + basio (too expensive + 10M Ethernet too slow)
http://www.jopdesign.com/cyclone/index.jsp

Easy FPGA (USB too slow + not enough RAM for streaming)
http://www.easyfpga.com/ez2susb_features.htm

NuHorizons Spartan 3 and others (no high speed interface)
http://www.nuhorizons.com/products/xilinx/spartan3/development-board.html

Emulation Technology System board + Ethernet module (not enough RAM
for streaming)
http://www.emulation.com/catalog/off-the-shelf_solutions/devsystems/xilinx2.html

Does anyone know of a board which might meet my requirements? Of the
above, the Emulation Technology solution provides the closest fit, if
only it had some onboard RAM.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Will]

davegoogle99@hotmail.com (Dave) wrote in message news:<1c21ab5c.0405170251.671c1c4a@posting.google.com>...

Does anyone know of a board which might meet my requirements? Of the
above, the Emulation Technology solution provides the closest fit, if
only it had some onboard RAM.

Cheers
Dave

I believe this board is made by Digilent, redistributed by Emulation.
Digilent also sells SRAM expansion boards.

Will

 

[John Adair]

Our new Broaddown2 Spartan3 board might meet your expectations. It is either
a PCI card or can stand alone on the bench. There is a significant high
speed I/O available for your use. We are expecting to build the first
production run in mid-late June. We have Spartan3 silicon already for this
batch so subject to the availability of a couple of minor components that
date should not move very much. If you are an educational user there are
discounts available on the standard pricing.

Details of Broaddown2 are here
http://www.enterpoint.co.uk/moelbryn/broaddown2.html .

John Adair
Enterpoint Ltd.
http://www.enterpoint.co.uk

This message is the personal opinion of the sender and not that necessarily
that of Enterpoint Ltd.. Readers should make their own evaluation of the
facts. No responsibility for error or inaccuracy is accepted.


"Dave" <davegoogle99@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1c21ab5c.0405170251.671c1c4a@posting.google.com...

Hi guys and gals,

Could I call on your collective experience and expertise?

I'd like to get hold of an FPGA development board for a data streaming
project. Requirements are as follows:

- Low cost (around 200 UK pounds ideally).
- At least 16 i/os routed out to connectors.
- High speed cabled interface to a PC, capable of sustaining a
streaming rate of at least 15Mbits/s. I've been considering USB2 or
100M Ethernet for this.
- Enough onboard RAM to ensure continuous data transfer to software
running on a Windoze PC.
- Single power supply @ 5V or 3.3V.

The best boards I've found so far are:

Cyclone FPGA + basio (too expensive + 10M Ethernet too slow)
http://www.jopdesign.com/cyclone/index.jsp

Easy FPGA (USB too slow + not enough RAM for streaming)
http://www.easyfpga.com/ez2susb_features.htm

NuHorizons Spartan 3 and others (no high speed interface)
http://www.nuhorizons.com/products/xilinx/spartan3/development-board.html

Emulation Technology System board + Ethernet module (not enough RAM
for streaming)

http://www.emulation.com/catalog/off-the-shelf_solutions/devsystems/xilinx2.html

Does anyone know of a board which might meet my requirements? Of the
above, the Emulation Technology solution provides the closest fit, if
only it had some onboard RAM.

Cheers
Dave