Memory width on Spartan-3 boards

[Simon]

So, I have a 32-bit processor design which I'd like to move to the
implementation stage, and I was wondering which of the
currently-available boards have 32-bit wide memory... I don't really
fancy designing my own because I've never ventured near 4-layer boards,
and if I was making my own, I'd want one of the FG456 packages, and
presumably you'd have to get that professionally soldered anyway...

As far as I can tell:

Xilinx starter kit
------------------

Pros: 32-bit wide RAM
LCD/Leds for debugging
PS2/VGA outputs
Price: $99

Cons:
Only 1 MByte of RAM
Uses the '200 part not the '400
No ethernet PHY
Fixed oscillator freq. (the CPU goes faster
Not many user-IO's available


AVnet Spartan-3 evaluation kit
------------------------------

Pros: '400 part used
Two oscillators, socketed
Lots of IO's available
Ethernet, VGA, PS2, RS232, Leds etc.
Could potentially be a PCI card

Cons: Only 1 MByte RAM
Not clear if the memory is 32-bit wide
Price is $399


Memec DS-KIT-3SLC400-PAC
------------------------

Cons: Has no memory on-board, enough said.


Nu Horizons Spartan3 board
--------------------------

Pros: Uses the '400 part, but only in the '208 package
Has D2A and A2D onboard
Has Flash RAM
Has LCD (4x24) as well as leds,buttons etc.
Has spare oscillator socket for > 20MHz operation
Price - $164

Cons: SDRAM appears to be 16-bit wide
Only has ~20 user io due to '208 package



So, nothing is perfect [grin], The AVNet one may be the best of the
bunch, despite being the most expensive, so long as it has 32-bit wide
RAM. I'd really appreciate it if someone who already has the board could
tell me



For the record (in case any board companies are listening my ideal
board would be something like:

- FG456 Spartan 3 '400 part
- Lots of user-IO, some with pin headers not obscure connectors
- 32+ bit wide RAM, either SRAM or SDRAM. How about a DIMM
- Ethernet PHY
- Leds / buttons / LED (or LCD) display
- VGA and PS2 connectors
- PCI edge connector would be nice but not essential

If Xilinx can do theirs for $99, I think the above could be do-able for
$200 (or $199 in marketing speak). I'd bite your hand off

Simon

 

[John Adair]

Have a look at our product Broadown2. We can definately support 32 bit
memory. Details are here
http://www.enterpoint.co.uk/moelbryn/broaddown2.html . Our pricing is
roughly comparable to Avnet. If you are a student/academic within the area
covered by our UAP program there may be discounts available.

--
John Adair
Enterpoint Ltd. - Home of Broaddown2. The Ultimate Spartan3 Development
Board.
http://www.enterpoint.co.uk


"Simon" <news@gornall.net> wrote in message
news:CJsKc.450$8D.12@newsfe3-gui.ntli.net...

So, I have a 32-bit processor design which I'd like to move to the
implementation stage, and I was wondering which of the
currently-available boards have 32-bit wide memory... I don't really
fancy designing my own because I've never ventured near 4-layer boards,
and if I was making my own, I'd want one of the FG456 packages, and
presumably you'd have to get that professionally soldered anyway...

As far as I can tell:

Xilinx starter kit
------------------

Pros: 32-bit wide RAM
LCD/Leds for debugging
PS2/VGA outputs
Price: $99

Cons:
Only 1 MByte of RAM
Uses the '200 part not the '400
No ethernet PHY
Fixed oscillator freq. (the CPU goes faster
Not many user-IO's available


AVnet Spartan-3 evaluation kit
------------------------------

Pros: '400 part used
Two oscillators, socketed
Lots of IO's available
Ethernet, VGA, PS2, RS232, Leds etc.
Could potentially be a PCI card

Cons: Only 1 MByte RAM
Not clear if the memory is 32-bit wide
Price is $399


Memec DS-KIT-3SLC400-PAC
------------------------

Cons: Has no memory on-board, enough said.


Nu Horizons Spartan3 board
--------------------------

Pros: Uses the '400 part, but only in the '208 package
Has D2A and A2D onboard
Has Flash RAM
Has LCD (4x24) as well as leds,buttons etc.
Has spare oscillator socket for > 20MHz operation
Price - $164

Cons: SDRAM appears to be 16-bit wide
Only has ~20 user io due to '208 package



So, nothing is perfect [grin], The AVNet one may be the best of the
bunch, despite being the most expensive, so long as it has 32-bit wide
RAM. I'd really appreciate it if someone who already has the board could
tell me



For the record (in case any board companies are listening my ideal
board would be something like:

- FG456 Spartan 3 '400 part
- Lots of user-IO, some with pin headers not obscure connectors
- 32+ bit wide RAM, either SRAM or SDRAM. How about a DIMM
- Ethernet PHY
- Leds / buttons / LED (or LCD) display
- VGA and PS2 connectors
- PCI edge connector would be nice but not essential

If Xilinx can do theirs for $99, I think the above could be do-able for
$200 (or $199 in marketing speak). I'd bite your hand off

Simon

 

[Simon]

John Adair wrote:

Have a look at our product Broadown2. We can definately support 32 bit
memory. Details are here
http://www.enterpoint.co.uk/moelbryn/broaddown2.html . Our pricing is
roughly comparable to Avnet. If you are a student/academic within the area
covered by our UAP program there may be discounts available.

I'd seen your boards, and indeed they look pretty good - they look more
like 'professional' kits than hobbyist ones though, which is both good
and bad ...

I like the security of having a led or switch onboard that I can use for
debugging (though it would be relatively easy to use all the headers you
provide to do the same, granted and using standard memory interfaces
is definitely a step forward

The reason why I didn't include your board is that there's no price
available and it *looks* expensive. In my limited experience, the
combination of the two means it normally *is* expensive [grin].

It also looks as though it's for professional use and, from what I
understand of the summary on the page, it can only be controlled via PCI
and to do anything useful (ie: custom) with it, I'd need to licence a
PCI core from someone (you, Xilinx, whoever), yes ? Does the opencores
PCI core work with the board ?

If the board can be used (with my design, not just as an io board)
without paying for a PCI core (I'm a hobbyist, as you can probably tell
, then by all means send me a quote. If you prefer, I'll not divulge
the price either

If your pricing is comparable, perhaps you'd want to think about putting
it online - that's the main reason I ignored your board in the first
place...

Simon.

 

[Joe]

Simon wrote:

So, I have a 32-bit processor design which I'd like to move to the
implementation stage, and I was wondering which of the
currently-available boards have 32-bit wide memory... I don't really
fancy designing my own because I've never ventured near 4-layer boards,
and if I was making my own, I'd want one of the FG456 packages, and
presumably you'd have to get that professionally soldered anyway...

As far as I can tell:

Xilinx starter kit
------------------

Pros: 32-bit wide RAM
LCD/Leds for debugging
PS2/VGA outputs
Price: $99

Cons:
Only 1 MByte of RAM
Uses the '200 part not the '400
No ethernet PHY
Fixed oscillator freq. (the CPU goes faster
Not many user-IO's available


AVnet Spartan-3 evaluation kit
------------------------------

Pros: '400 part used
Two oscillators, socketed
Lots of IO's available
Ethernet, VGA, PS2, RS232, Leds etc.
Could potentially be a PCI card

Cons: Only 1 MByte RAM
Not clear if the memory is 32-bit wide
Price is $399


Memec DS-KIT-3SLC400-PAC
------------------------

Cons: Has no memory on-board, enough said.


Nu Horizons Spartan3 board
--------------------------

Pros: Uses the '400 part, but only in the '208 package
Has D2A and A2D onboard
Has Flash RAM
Has LCD (4x24) as well as leds,buttons etc.
Has spare oscillator socket for > 20MHz operation
Price - $164

Cons: SDRAM appears to be 16-bit wide
Only has ~20 user io due to '208 package



So, nothing is perfect [grin], The AVNet one may be the best of the
bunch, despite being the most expensive, so long as it has 32-bit wide
RAM. I'd really appreciate it if someone who already has the board could
tell me



For the record (in case any board companies are listening my ideal
board would be something like:

- FG456 Spartan 3 '400 part
- Lots of user-IO, some with pin headers not obscure connectors
- 32+ bit wide RAM, either SRAM or SDRAM. How about a DIMM
- Ethernet PHY
- Leds / buttons / LED (or LCD) display
- VGA and PS2 connectors
- PCI edge connector would be nice but not essential

If Xilinx can do theirs for $99, I think the above could be do-able for
$200 (or $199 in marketing speak). I'd bite your hand off

Simon

Don't forgot to check :
- the cost of postage/delivery
- if design examples are available

I'm in UK and Xilinx charge US$29.2 for shipping,
while Nu Horizons charge US$75.0 (and no design
examples), so I ordered the Xilinx board.

1Mb RAM is quite a lot usless you use it for video/audio processing.
Regarding bus width issue, you can develope a simple bus bridge /
RAM controller to convert 32-bit accesses to 16-bits (provided you
have wait state input on your CPU core).

A few more things add to the wish list:
- RS232 (already available om some boards you mentioned)
- PS/2 interface x 2 (one for mouse, one for keyboard as the same time)
- Audio (I2S)
- SDRAM, or
- SDRAM module connector ( for PC100/133 modules - you can plug one
in if you wanted to use SDRAM, or if you don't need SD-RAM you
can have the pins for user I/O.)
- LCD module connector
- and yes, Xilinx, will you guys make a starter kit with XC3S-400
pleassssssssssse

- Also it would be nice if vendors can develop I/O boards for the
Xilinx's kit (am I getting too demanding here?

Joe

 

[John Adair]

Price for the standard board is Ł250 / 399 Euro / $399 plus shipping and any
applying taxes in your country. The price is buried in a pdf flyer that is
linked on the website, look here
http://www.enterpoint.co.uk/moelbryn/Broaddown2_Flyer.pdf . The phy/RJ45
plug-in price is not set but should be less than Ł20. I'm glad to have our
product thought of as "quality" and I certainly wouldn't want to produce
anything less.

The next batch of un-sold boards will be with us in approximately 6-8 weeks.

If anyone else thinks we should have further info on website etc let me know
what you think is missing and I will have the website improved to cover any
gaps.

The board is aimed at professional users and students but we don't mind
selling to hobby engineers. The DIL headers will take stripboard as well as
manufactured boards and that was deliberate feature in the board concept.

Twin digit LED is available on plug-in supplied with board.

You don't need a PCI license. The PCI connector can be used as an I/O
connector. We have a test board that we might make into a product that
already does this. We also have a free standard build on the way that will
allow the board to be used as an I/O board without doing anything except
programming the Broaddown2 Platform Flash device. I haven't used opencores
PCI but I can't think of any reason that it should not work.


--
John Adair
Enterpoint Ltd. - Home of Broaddown2. The Ultimate Spartan3 Development
Board.
http://www.enterpoint.co.uk


"Simon" <news@gornall.net> wrote in message
news:jZtKc.780$b11.202@newsfe4-gui.ntli.net...

John Adair wrote:

Have a look at our product Broadown2. We can definately support 32 bit
memory. Details are here
http://www.enterpoint.co.uk/moelbryn/broaddown2.html . Our pricing is
roughly comparable to Avnet. If you are a student/academic within the
area
covered by our UAP program there may be discounts available.


I'd seen your boards, and indeed they look pretty good - they look more
like 'professional' kits than hobbyist ones though, which is both good
and bad ...

I like the security of having a led or switch onboard that I can use for
debugging (though it would be relatively easy to use all the headers you
provide to do the same, granted and using standard memory interfaces
is definitely a step forward

The reason why I didn't include your board is that there's no price
available and it *looks* expensive. In my limited experience, the
combination of the two means it normally *is* expensive [grin].

It also looks as though it's for professional use and, from what I
understand of the summary on the page, it can only be controlled via PCI
and to do anything useful (ie: custom) with it, I'd need to licence a
PCI core from someone (you, Xilinx, whoever), yes ? Does the opencores
PCI core work with the board ?

If the board can be used (with my design, not just as an io board)
without paying for a PCI core (I'm a hobbyist, as you can probably tell
, then by all means send me a quote. If you prefer, I'll not divulge
the price either

If your pricing is comparable, perhaps you'd want to think about putting
it online - that's the main reason I ignored your board in the first
place...

Simon.

 

[John Adair]

Get us a little time and we will satisfy most of these demands by plug-ins.
We are UK based so shipping to the UK should be around the Ł10 mark or less.

Our SODIMM socket will support I/O functions. We have such a board already
on the way for our own purposes. One of our standard builds (free) will
support this.

--
John Adair
Enterpoint Ltd. - Home of Broaddown2. The Ultimate Spartan3 Development
Board.
http://www.enterpoint.co.uk


"Joe" <joe_y@invalid_address.nospam.com> wrote in message
news:cde1j4$ckh$1$8302bc10@news.demon.co.uk...

Simon wrote:
So, I have a 32-bit processor design which I'd like to move to the
implementation stage, and I was wondering which of the
currently-available boards have 32-bit wide memory... I don't really
fancy designing my own because I've never ventured near 4-layer boards,
and if I was making my own, I'd want one of the FG456 packages, and
presumably you'd have to get that professionally soldered anyway...

As far as I can tell:

Xilinx starter kit
------------------

Pros: 32-bit wide RAM
LCD/Leds for debugging
PS2/VGA outputs
Price: $99

Cons:
Only 1 MByte of RAM
Uses the '200 part not the '400
No ethernet PHY
Fixed oscillator freq. (the CPU goes faster
Not many user-IO's available


AVnet Spartan-3 evaluation kit
------------------------------

Pros: '400 part used
Two oscillators, socketed
Lots of IO's available
Ethernet, VGA, PS2, RS232, Leds etc.
Could potentially be a PCI card

Cons: Only 1 MByte RAM
Not clear if the memory is 32-bit wide
Price is $399


Memec DS-KIT-3SLC400-PAC
------------------------

Cons: Has no memory on-board, enough said.


Nu Horizons Spartan3 board
--------------------------

Pros: Uses the '400 part, but only in the '208 package
Has D2A and A2D onboard
Has Flash RAM
Has LCD (4x24) as well as leds,buttons etc.
Has spare oscillator socket for > 20MHz operation
Price - $164

Cons: SDRAM appears to be 16-bit wide
Only has ~20 user io due to '208 package



So, nothing is perfect [grin], The AVNet one may be the best of the
bunch, despite being the most expensive, so long as it has 32-bit wide
RAM. I'd really appreciate it if someone who already has the board could
tell me



For the record (in case any board companies are listening my ideal
board would be something like:

- FG456 Spartan 3 '400 part
- Lots of user-IO, some with pin headers not obscure connectors
- 32+ bit wide RAM, either SRAM or SDRAM. How about a DIMM
- Ethernet PHY
- Leds / buttons / LED (or LCD) display
- VGA and PS2 connectors
- PCI edge connector would be nice but not essential

If Xilinx can do theirs for $99, I think the above could be do-able for
$200 (or $199 in marketing speak). I'd bite your hand off

Simon

Don't forgot to check :
- the cost of postage/delivery
- if design examples are available

I'm in UK and Xilinx charge US$29.2 for shipping,
while Nu Horizons charge US$75.0 (and no design
examples), so I ordered the Xilinx board.

1Mb RAM is quite a lot usless you use it for video/audio processing.
Regarding bus width issue, you can develope a simple bus bridge /
RAM controller to convert 32-bit accesses to 16-bits (provided you
have wait state input on your CPU core).

A few more things add to the wish list:
- RS232 (already available om some boards you mentioned)
- PS/2 interface x 2 (one for mouse, one for keyboard as the same time)
- Audio (I2S)
- SDRAM, or
- SDRAM module connector ( for PC100/133 modules - you can plug one
in if you wanted to use SDRAM, or if you don't need SD-RAM you
can have the pins for user I/O.)
- LCD module connector
- and yes, Xilinx, will you guys make a starter kit with XC3S-400
pleassssssssssse

- Also it would be nice if vendors can develop I/O boards for the
Xilinx's kit (am I getting too demanding here?

Joe

 

[Joe]

John Adair wrote:

Get us a little time and we will satisfy most of these demands by plug-ins.
We are UK based so shipping to the UK should be around the Ł10 mark or less.

Our SODIMM socket will support I/O functions. We have such a board already
on the way for our own purposes. One of our standard builds (free) will
support this.

Hi John,

I saw your board, but using DDR-RAM is a bit overkill for most projects,
especailly for hobbyists and students. So I assumed your board is for
professionals (and therefore expensive?

Also DDR-SDRAM controller design is more complex that I am not sure if I
can cope with that. Possibly the DDR-SDRAM controller design already
take 25% of the FPGA

I like the idea of having three versions XC3S400, 1000 and 1500. Having
PCI connector is nice too, but I don't need that at this moment. I only
want to do some experiments on designing CPU cores, that's why RS232,
PS2, VGA and SRAM interface are useful for me. I don't have access to
PCB manufacturing facilities so can't do my own add-on boards.

I have been thinking about getting the B5-X300 from www.Burched.com, but
the total cost (FPGA board + ad-on boards) is still a bit expensive. So
the Xilinx's kit fit the bill.

If your company will do a board like the Xilinx starter kit, but with
XC3S400 part, I will certainly be very interested (if it is not too
expensive)

Joe

 

[John Adair]

It is very hard to hit the mark with everyone. Broaddown2 was never intended
for the very cheap end. It is a fairly complex board and has manufacturing
costs that go with that complexity. The main leaning to hobby electronics is
that the XC3S400 is supported by Webpack and which anything bigger isn't
supported.

We are looking at a range of option boards for the DDR2 socket including
other memory types. Watch this space.

There may be some things coming out late 2004 that may be suitable for hobby
electronics. Watch for product announcements or join our email list if you
are interested.


--
John Adair
Enterpoint Ltd. - Home of Broaddown2. The Ultimate Spartan3 Development
Board.
http://www.enterpoint.co.uk


"Joe" <joe_y@invalid_address.nospam.com> wrote in message
news:cde6ht$s7i$1$830fa7a5@news.demon.co.uk...

John Adair wrote:
Get us a little time and we will satisfy most of these demands by
plug-ins.
We are UK based so shipping to the UK should be around the Ł10 mark or
less.

Our SODIMM socket will support I/O functions. We have such a board
already
on the way for our own purposes. One of our standard builds (free) will
support this.


Hi John,

I saw your board, but using DDR-RAM is a bit overkill for most projects,
especailly for hobbyists and students. So I assumed your board is for
professionals (and therefore expensive?

Also DDR-SDRAM controller design is more complex that I am not sure if I
can cope with that. Possibly the DDR-SDRAM controller design already
take 25% of the FPGA

I like the idea of having three versions XC3S400, 1000 and 1500. Having
PCI connector is nice too, but I don't need that at this moment. I only
want to do some experiments on designing CPU cores, that's why RS232,
PS2, VGA and SRAM interface are useful for me. I don't have access to
PCB manufacturing facilities so can't do my own add-on boards.

I have been thinking about getting the B5-X300 from www.Burched.com, but
the total cost (FPGA board + ad-on boards) is still a bit expensive. So
the Xilinx's kit fit the bill.

If your company will do a board like the Xilinx starter kit, but with
XC3S400 part, I will certainly be very interested (if it is not too
expensive)

Joe

 

[Paul Hartke]

Joe,

According to http://www.xilinx.com/bvdocs/userguides/ug130.pdf,
the Xilinx Spartan-3 Starter Kit board uses the Digilent expansion
header. A number of peripheral boards are available at:
https://digilent.us/Sales/boards.cfm#Peripheral

Paul

Joe wrote:

snip

- Also it would be nice if vendors can develop I/O boards for the
Xilinx's kit (am I getting too demanding here?

Joe

 

[Paul Hartke]

Simon,

There will be an Ethernet Peripheral Board available for the Xilinx
Spartan-3 Starter Kit board from Digilent:
https://digilent.us/Sales/Product.cfm?Prod=NET1

I physically have one of these boards right now but do not know when
they will be generally available.

Paul

Simon wrote:

So, I have a 32-bit processor design which I'd like to move to the
implementation stage, and I was wondering which of the
currently-available boards have 32-bit wide memory... I don't really
fancy designing my own because I've never ventured near 4-layer boards,
and if I was making my own, I'd want one of the FG456 packages, and
presumably you'd have to get that professionally soldered anyway...

As far as I can tell:

Xilinx starter kit
------------------

Pros: 32-bit wide RAM
LCD/Leds for debugging
PS2/VGA outputs
Price: $99

Cons:
Only 1 MByte of RAM
Uses the '200 part not the '400
No ethernet PHY
Fixed oscillator freq. (the CPU goes faster
Not many user-IO's available

 

[Simon]

John Adair wrote:

Price for the standard board is Ł250 / 399 Euro / $399 plus shipping and any
applying taxes in your country. The price is buried in a pdf flyer that is
linked on the website, look here
http://www.enterpoint.co.uk/moelbryn/Broaddown2_Flyer.pdf . The phy/RJ45
plug-in price is not set but should be less than Ł20. I'm glad to have our
product thought of as "quality" and I certainly wouldn't want to produce
anything less.

Sorry, I wasn't impugning the quality of yours or any other board, what
I meant was the 'look' of the board was more professional, in that it
didn't have the leds, rs232, lcd/led display etc. that a 'starter kit'
typically has. It looks like a 'workhorse' solution rather than the
'prancing pony' with all the extras ... hmm. Not sure about my analogy

The next batch of un-sold boards will be with us in approximately 6-8 weeks.

Well, it looks good to me

If anyone else thinks we should have further info on website etc let me know
what you think is missing and I will have the website improved to cover any
gaps.

The board is aimed at professional users and students but we don't mind
selling to hobby engineers. The DIL headers will take stripboard as well as
manufactured boards and that was deliberate feature in the board concept.

Twin digit LED is available on plug-in supplied with board.

Ah yes, I see that now - I missed it before. I had found the second of
the PDF's on your site, but missed the one with the price on it.

You don't need a PCI license. The PCI connector can be used as an I/O
connector. We have a test board that we might make into a product that
already does this. We also have a free standard build on the way that will
allow the board to be used as an I/O board without doing anything except
programming the Broaddown2 Platform Flash device. I haven't used opencores
PCI but I can't think of any reason that it should not work.

When you were referring to 'standard build for an i/o board', I had
thought you meant a board configured using the PCI slot, with a fixed
download configuration, to be used for testing rather than development.

I now think you mean that the board doesn't need to be in a computer,
and that the i/o you're talking about is the configuration of the
Spartan-3 with a custom (ie: mine configuration via the pci edge
connector, even though not using the PCI protocols. Is this what you mean ?

To be clear, before I cough up Ł250: is there a direct way of
programming the board from within WebPack, or would I need to design a
host interface to sit between the PCI edge connector and the download
cable ?

Simon.

 

[Paul Hartke]

Simon,

With regard to the Oscillator frequency, have you seen the following in
the User Guide (http://www.xilinx.com/bvdocs/userguides/ug130.pdf)?

"The Spartan-3 Starter Kit board has a dedicated 50 MHz Epson SG-8002JF
series clock oscillator source and an optional socket for another clock
oscillator source. Figure A-5 provides a detailed schematic for the
clock
sources.

The 50 MHz clock oscillator is mounted on the bottom side of the board,
indicated as in Figure A-5. Use the 50 MHz clock frequency as is or
derive
other frequencies using the FPGAs Digital Clock Managers (DCMs). Using
Digital Clock Managers (DCMs) in Spartan-3 FPGAs
http://www.xilinx.com/bvdocs/appnotes/xapp462.pdf

The oscillator socket, indicated as in Figure 1-2, accepts oscillators
in
an 8-pin DIP footprint."

Paul

Simon wrote:

Xilinx starter kit
------------------

Pros: 32-bit wide RAM
LCD/Leds for debugging
PS2/VGA outputs
Price: $99

Cons:
Only 1 MByte of RAM
Uses the '200 part not the '400
No ethernet PHY
Fixed oscillator freq. (the CPU goes faster
Not many user-IO's available

 

[Simon]

Joe wrote:

1Mb RAM is quite a lot usless you use it for video/audio processing.
Regarding bus width issue, you can develope a simple bus bridge /
RAM controller to convert 32-bit accesses to 16-bits (provided you
have wait state input on your CPU core).

Well, I want to do a few things with the board when I get it. I used to
use a unix workstation that ran a 32-bit CPU at 33 MHz and life was
good. Now my cpu may not be a MIPS 3000, but at 70MHz (estimated, it's
doing 65 now with minimal effort on floorplanning), I'd hope it could be
compared. Or perhaps I'm dreaming - at any rate I'd like to find out

The core does have wait states for memory (and on-chip peripherals), but
one of the things I'd like to do ultimately is fill a line of i/d-cache
at a time from the (currently non-existant memory controller using
burst mode, which means that I'll want that controller<->RAM interface
to run as fast as possible.

I also want to try and get it encoding/decoding video <--> mpeg2 if I
can. Having seen the complexity of the s/w written to do that, I think
that's a pretty big challenge (at least for me but I think others
have done it for student projects etc. Having the CPU might make it
possible to do some of it in s/w and just have the heavy-lifting in h/w.
I'm not sure how much space it'll take to do an MPEG core though -
perhaps too much for the '400 device.

Anyway, that's why I'd like lots of memory 256MBytes on an SO-Dimm
seems like a good idea to me

A few more things add to the wish list:
- RS232 (already available om some boards you mentioned)
- PS/2 interface x 2 (one for mouse, one for keyboard as the same time)
- Audio (I2S)
- SDRAM, or
- SDRAM module connector ( for PC100/133 modules - you can plug one
in if you wanted to use SDRAM, or if you don't need SD-RAM you
can have the pins for user I/O.)
- LCD module connector
- and yes, Xilinx, will you guys make a starter kit with XC3S-400
pleassssssssssse

I think the crucial thing is i/o pins. It's not too hard to fire up
Eagle and make your own add-on daughterboard as long as the i/o is
available. Without, it's impossible...

One of the things I like about the Broaddown2 (odd name for a board) is
that a *lot* of i/o is available and not in some high-density connector,
but with easy-to-use pinouts

Simon

 

[Simon]

Actually, just to follow that up, John, how much is a '1500 part on the
board ? I realise I'd have to fork out for BaseX ('cos there ain't no
way I'm paying for Foundation!) but that would have the side-effect of
letting me work on Linux

Simon

 

[Joe]

Paul Hartke wrote:

Joe,

According to http://www.xilinx.com/bvdocs/userguides/ug130.pdf,
the Xilinx Spartan-3 Starter Kit board uses the Digilent expansion
header. A number of peripheral boards are available at:
https://digilent.us/Sales/boards.cfm#Peripheral

Paul

Joe wrote:

snip

- Also it would be nice if vendors can develop I/O boards for the
Xilinx's kit (am I getting too demanding here?

Joe

Thanks Paul. I didn't realize they are the same connector

Joe

 

[Simon]

Paul Hartke wrote:

Simon,

With regard to the Oscillator frequency, have you seen the following in
the User Guide (http://www.xilinx.com/bvdocs/userguides/ug130.pdf)?

"The Spartan-3 Starter Kit board has a dedicated 50 MHz Epson SG-8002JF
series clock oscillator source and an optional socket for another clock
oscillator source. Figure A-5 provides a detailed schematic for the
clock
sources.

[grin] You're getting there, Paul If you can do something about the
1 MByte of RAM and the '200 part, I'll have found my ideal board

Anyway, as you rightly point out, scratch the bottom 3 'cons' for the
starter kit - it really is good value, isn't it ?

Xilinx starter kit
------------------

Pros: 32-bit wide RAM
LCD/Leds for debugging
PS2/VGA outputs
Price: $99

Cons:
Only 1 MByte of RAM
Uses the '200 part not the '400
(x) No ethernet PHY
(x) Fixed oscillator freq. (the CPU goes faster
(x) Not many user-IO's available

Simon

 

[Sylvain Munaut]

AVnet Spartan-3 evaluation kit
------------------------------

Pros: '400 part used
Two oscillators, socketed
Lots of IO's available
Ethernet, VGA, PS2, RS232, Leds etc.
Could potentially be a PCI card

Cons: Only 1 MByte RAM
Not clear if the memory is 32-bit wide
Price is $399

Memory is 32 bits wide. I just got the usermanual from their FAE. And I'm going to buy it during the week
The great plus of this card is that it has a lot of stuff already on board.

 

[John Adair]

Initially programming by Parallel Cable 4 from parallel port to header on the board. We are hoping to have a more elegant and cheaper solution in a few months. <br><br>John Adair <br>
www.enterpoint.co.uk

 

[John Adair]

Cost isn't set yet but likely to be Ł299 / E499 / $ 499. We have not set a specific production date for these yet. We would like to put a few XC3S1500 specific enhancements into the design over and above the larger chip size. However if there is enough demand we will accelerate the production cycle but this may be limited by delivery times on XC3S1500 silicon. We now have a rolling delivery of XC3S400 so once we are past the initial demand Broaddown2-400 will be a stock item. Broaddown2-1500 should be become a stock item in about 3-4 months on the current schedule. If you need a solution earlier contact me offline and I will see what can be done. <br><br>-- <br>
John Adair <br>
Enterpoint Ltd. - Home of Broaddown2. The Ultimate Spartan3 Development <br>
Board. <br>
<a href="http://www.enterpoint.co.uk">http://www.enterpoint.co.uk</a>

 

[Simon]

John Adair wrote:

Cost isn't set yet but likely to be Ł299 / E499 / $ 499. We have not set
a specific production date for these yet. We would like to put a few
XC3S1500 specific enhancements into the design over and above the larger
chip size. However if there is enough demand we will accelerate the
production cycle but this may be limited by delivery times on XC3S1500
silicon. We now have a rolling delivery of XC3S400 so once we are past
the initial demand Broaddown2-400 will be a stock item. Broaddown2-1500
should be become a stock item in about 3-4 months on the current
schedule. If you need a solution earlier contact me offline and I will
see what can be done.

Actually that timescale sort of suits me. I've got to persuade myself
that the $2500 (probably = Ł1800 after import duty etc.) for Foundation
is worth the outlay, just to use the larger part. I work in the
video/film industry, and I have an idea which might make it worthwhile,
but a few months will give me some time to explore that

What specific enhancements are you proposing ? If you want to take this
to private email, that's fine - the same address will do (news@gornall.net).

Simon