Questions about LCMXO2280-B-EVN and LCMXO2-1200ZE-B-EVN ev k

[LM]

There are too many FPGAa and CPLDs. I can see that LCMXO2280-B-EVN has 8 40-pin connectors, which is important to me. But what else is there and what I am missing. And then there is Xilinx too.

By the way, what is CPLD, a fancy name for a FPGA?

Does Altera store sell to individual or only business?

 

[Jon Elson]

LM wrote:

There are too many FPGAa and CPLDs. I can see that LCMXO2280-B-EVN has 8
40-pin connectors, which is important to me. But what else is there and
what I am missing. And then there is Xilinx too.

By the way, what is CPLD, a fancy name for a FPGA?

Years ago, there used to be PALs, very small programmable devices,

maybe a dozen wide gates, maybe with 8 FFs, too. Somebody decided
to make a "super" PAL, and put 4 or 8 of the standard 22V10 on one
chip. Xilinx bought out this line, and still sell it as the 9500
series. So, a CPLD is in some sense a mini-FPGA, although the
roots date back to the PLA/PLD heritage. This means that it is composed
of a small number of VERY wide gates, such as 18-input. For decoding
wide addresses, these can actually be an advantage, as in circuits
that detect addresses on a bus. An FPGA is much "finer grained" and
so a wide decoder would need to be built out of many LUT elements.

Does Altera store sell to individual or only business?
It is probably easiest to buy these parts from distributors like

Digi-Key.

Jon

 

On Tuesday, June 5, 2012 8:00:54 AM UTC+12, LM wrote:

There are too many FPGAa and CPLDs. I can see that LCMXO2280-B-EVN has 8 40-pin connectors, which is important to me. But what else is there and what I am missing.

From the Lattice stable, you could also look at the newer LCMXO2-1200ZE-B-EVN ?

By the way, what is CPLD, a fancy name for a FPGA?

CPLD is Complex Programmable Logic Device, spawned from SPLD (Simple Programmable Logic Device), which were the original PAL/PLD/GAL/FPLS (etc).

CPLD's used to keep the wide-and aspect of SPLDs but recently more FPGA-like fabric & tool flows has moved into the larger CPLDs..

 

[LM]

tiistai, 5. kesäkuuta 2012 6.39.59 UTC+3 (tuntematon) kirjoitti:

On Tuesday, June 5, 2012 8:00:54 AM UTC+12, LM wrote:
There are too many FPGAa and CPLDs. I can see that LCMXO2280-B-EVN has 8 40-pin connectors, which is important to me. But what else is there and what I am missing.

From the Lattice stable, you could also look at the newer LCMXO2-1200ZE-B-EVN ?

By the way, what is CPLD, a fancy name for a FPGA?

CPLD is Complex Programmable Logic Device, spawned from SPLD (Simple Programmable Logic Device), which were the original PAL/PLD/GAL/FPLS (etc).

CPLD's used to keep the wide-and aspect of SPLDs but recently more FPGA-like fabric & tool flows has moved into the larger CPLDs..

Good to know.

Here you have some more questions and comments.

These chips and kits are relatively cheap. And my sw is simple too. I am going to put a led driver in every output the ic has. So it looks like I am not going loose something with either chip. Or with the 1200ZE. I only hope they have enough logic to drive every pin individually.

I tried Digi-key, but they would have charged quite a lot extra. But there is some kind a local (.fi) Digi-key, I will check that.

I believe you when you say that LCMXO2-1200ZE-B-EVN is newer, but LCMXO2280-B-EVN kit has more outputs on this kit. Are there some other important differences I should know of.

Leif

 

[Gabor]

LM wrote:

tiistai, 5. kesäkuuta 2012 6.39.59 UTC+3 (tuntematon) kirjoitti:
On Tuesday, June 5, 2012 8:00:54 AM UTC+12, LM wrote:
There are too many FPGAa and CPLDs. I can see that LCMXO2280-B-EVN has 8 40-pin connectors, which is important to me. But what else is there and what I am missing.
From the Lattice stable, you could also look at the newer LCMXO2-1200ZE-B-EVN ?

By the way, what is CPLD, a fancy name for a FPGA?
CPLD is Complex Programmable Logic Device, spawned from SPLD (Simple Programmable Logic Device), which were the original PAL/PLD/GAL/FPLS (etc).

CPLD's used to keep the wide-and aspect of SPLDs but recently more FPGA-like fabric & tool flows has moved into the larger CPLDs..

Good to know.

Here you have some more questions and comments.

These chips and kits are relatively cheap. And my sw is simple too. I am going to put a led driver in every output the ic has. So it looks like I am not going loose something with either chip. Or with the 1200ZE. I only hope they have enough logic to drive every pin individually.

I tried Digi-key, but they would have charged quite a lot extra. But there is some kind a local (.fi) Digi-key, I will check that.

I believe you when you say that LCMXO2-1200ZE-B-EVN is newer, but LCMXO2280-B-EVN kit has more outputs on this kit. Are there some other important differences I should know of.

Leif

It's probably worth looking through the features at the top of each
family data sheet. MachXO2 has some new features that make high-speed
I/O easier, for example. Neither of these families is a traditional
"CPLD." They are both small FPGA's by architecture.

Another thing to note is that Lattice has very aggressive pricing
on kits when they first come out - often as low as $29.99, so
sometimes you can get a lot more bang for the buck if you keep
an eye out for new releases and introductory offers.

-- Gabor

 

[LM]

tiistai, 5. kesäkuuta 2012 16.17.03 UTC+3 Gabor kirjoitti:

LM wrote:
tiistai, 5. kes�kuuta 2012 6.39.59 UTC+3 (tuntematon) kirjoitti:
On Tuesday, June 5, 2012 8:00:54 AM UTC+12, LM wrote:
There are too many FPGAa and CPLDs. I can see that LCMXO2280-B-EVN has 8 40-pin connectors, which is important to me. But what else is there and what I am missing.
From the Lattice stable, you could also look at the newer LCMXO2-1200ZE-B-EVN ?

By the way, what is CPLD, a fancy name for a FPGA?
CPLD is Complex Programmable Logic Device, spawned from SPLD (Simple Programmable Logic Device), which were the original PAL/PLD/GAL/FPLS (etc).

CPLD's used to keep the wide-and aspect of SPLDs but recently more FPGA-like fabric & tool flows has moved into the larger CPLDs..

Good to know.

Here you have some more questions and comments.

These chips and kits are relatively cheap. And my sw is simple too. I am going to put a led driver in every output the ic has. So it looks like I am not going loose something with either chip. Or with the 1200ZE. I only hope they have enough logic to drive every pin individually.

I tried Digi-key, but they would have charged quite a lot extra. But there is some kind a local (.fi) Digi-key, I will check that.

I believe you when you say that LCMXO2-1200ZE-B-EVN is newer, but LCMXO2280-B-EVN kit has more outputs on this kit. Are there some other important differences I should know of.

Leif

It's probably worth looking through the features at the top of each
family data sheet. MachXO2 has some new features that make high-speed
I/O easier, for example. Neither of these families is a traditional
"CPLD." They are both small FPGA's by architecture.

Another thing to note is that Lattice has very aggressive pricing
on kits when they first come out - often as low as $29.99, so
sometimes you can get a lot more bang for the buck if you keep
an eye out for new releases and introductory offers.

-- Gabor

OK

That is good to know. Lets see how long I can wait

Leif