Spartan3 Dev Boards

[Brad Smallridge]

Well I almost bought a development kit from Xilinx's
Online Store, however, I was looking at the schematics
and saw that this is the same board designed by Digilent,
a board that I already had. So I guess my first question
is what do I get with the Xilinx kit that I might not already
have?

I haven't pursued my Digilent board too much because
there didn't seem to be any software for it. I also bought
a board from Memec and it has a few software examples,
but no VGA port, which is an interest of mine. If anyone
has any more examples for the Memec board, that would
be of great interest to me.

I would like to see a real VGA driver on a dev kit but I am
also interested in what this Digilent 3 bit shoestring VGA can
do. It seems to simple to believe. Has anybody done anything
with it?

I think the XESS people were going to do a Spartan3 board.
Anyone know about this?

Salutations,

Brad

 

[Eric Crabill]

Hi,

I would like to see a real VGA driver on a dev kit but I am
also interested in what this Digilent 3 bit shoestring VGA can
do. It seems to simple to believe. Has anybody done anything
with it?

Well, you get 8 colors, you can certainly do character generators
and simple graphics. For two "exercises" that are directly
compatible with the D2E/DIO1 combo from Digilient, check out:

http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/crabill

I'm sure these can easily be ported to the new Spartan-3 board.
What kind of stuff did you want to do with it, I'm curious.

Eric

 

[John Adair]

Have a look at our new product Broaddown2. It can have a driver added using
the expansion positions. Next batch available 6-8 weeks. Details here
http://www.enterpoint.co.uk/moelbryn/broaddown2.html .

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


"Brad Smallridge" <bradsmallridge@dslextreme.com> wrote in message
news:10fdfm7rqi5si78@corp.supernews.com...

Well I almost bought a development kit from Xilinx's
Online Store, however, I was looking at the schematics
and saw that this is the same board designed by Digilent,
a board that I already had. So I guess my first question
is what do I get with the Xilinx kit that I might not already
have?

I haven't pursued my Digilent board too much because
there didn't seem to be any software for it. I also bought
a board from Memec and it has a few software examples,
but no VGA port, which is an interest of mine. If anyone
has any more examples for the Memec board, that would
be of great interest to me.

I would like to see a real VGA driver on a dev kit but I am
also interested in what this Digilent 3 bit shoestring VGA can
do. It seems to simple to believe. Has anybody done anything
with it?

I think the XESS people were going to do a Spartan3 board.
Anyone know about this?

Salutations,

Brad

 

[Nathan Hunsperger]

Brad Smallridge <bradsmallridge@dslextreme.com> wrote:

I haven't pursued my Digilent board too much because
there didn't seem to be any software for it. I also bought
a board from Memec and it has a few software examples,
but no VGA port, which is an interest of mine. If anyone
has any more examples for the Memec board, that would
be of great interest to me.

I've been eyeing a board from Avnet for a while (ADS-XLX-SP3-EVL400).

It is based on a Spartan 3 400, has a VGA port (which uses a real
video DAC), RJ45, RS232, PS2, ..., and a PCI edge. It is a bit
pricy for hobbyists like me ($399), but it seems to be a very
well-thought through general-purpose dev board. Avnet also makes
a version with a 1500 part for $100 more, though when I talked to
them a month or so ago, they couldn't source the S3 1500 for
production.

If anybody has used this board and has some comments to share, please do!

- Nathan