Zynq devices, boards and suppliers

[Paul Rubin]

John Larkin <jjlarkin@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> writes:

The good part is that the design, including Gerbers, is fully public,...
I hope they are serious about it. They have sure invested a lot so far.

That big wire on the back of the board in your photo is interesting.
Although red in color, it looks like what's traditionally called a "blue
wire", i.e. maybe they're out of stock right now because the board is
in the process of being revved.

 

[Tom Gardner]

On 11/11/13 23:22, Mike Ng wrote:

On Monday, November 11, 2013 4:28:24 AM UTC-5, Tom Gardner wrote:
Out of curiosity, how long ago did you buy them and how long did
they take to materialise? Currently Avnet are showing no stock
and 5 weeks lead time.

Worryingly, it has been "5 weeks" for the past 3 weeks - so I'm
concerned that Avnet have "lost interest" in the board. Any info
about Avnet's support practices would be useful.

I ordered one mid-September when the leadtime was "1 week". That sounded a little suspicious so I went to web chat support and got "4 weeks" as the real leadtime.

It does sound like they're preparing a new rev.

Or maybe they're preparing something much more expensive...
http://linuxgizmos.com/tiny-arm-plus-fpga-sbc-gains-beefier-fpga/

 

[Tom Gardner]

I'd like to make a couple of comments based on my experience,
in the hope they might be helpful to other netizens.

In the end I purchased an Avnet MicroZed and JTAG cable in
January. The ordering process was smooth but the delivery
wasn't. An email confirmed the stated 3 week delay for
the MicroZed, and that the JTAG cable /was/ in stock.
However, the next day the website showed an 18(!) delay
until May. I quickly cancelled the now out of stock
JTAG cable, and the MicroZed turned up in March, after
maybe 8 weeks.

That is unacceptable and makes me unlikely to choose
to use Avnet as a distributor.

More positively, the MicroZed documentation and support
have been exemplary; the potential concerns I raised
in the note below haven't been bourne out. Indeed Avnet
have expanded their range and appear to be making concerted
efforts to make a business in this area.

So far I have /no/ concerns about having chosen to use
a MicroZed, although nowadays I would probably choose
to use the MicroZed SBC board variant.



On 16/10/13 12:28, Tom Gardner wrote:

I'd like to pick people's brains about aspects of
different *suppliers* of Zynq boards. Avnet and Digilent
are front-runners, but any info/opinions about other
suppliers would be helpful too.

- ease of using their embedded linux. My needs
are simple, requiring a shell and TCP/IP protocols
over ethernet. GUI not required, but might be
used if it didn't complicate the development.

- quality of online support. How easy is it
likely to be to find the information so that
I can (a) duplicate any supplied demo environment
and (b) mutate it so that my code accesses my
programmable logic

- board production longevity. I'm not concerned
about decades, but I would be concerned if a
board was unobtainable within months

- ISE or Vivado environment

Background and context...

I'm intending to develop something based around a small
Xylinx Zynq device. Cost is an issue, but not to the
extent that I will be developing a board containing
the FPGA itself. I will, however, be developing a small
simple add-on board containing my analogue circuits.

Now I can read a datasheet and schematic and outline
to determine the extent to which a board is suitable.
However, as we are all aware, those documents /don't/
cover all the important points when choosing a board!

I've created many stand-alone hardware and software
embedded systems, but *not* based on linux *nor* on ARM
*nor* in the Xilinx ecosystem. Since Zynq devices
represent a complex environment, I'll have a learning
curve (good, I like challenges), and I'm interested
in the quality of the resources and support that
I'll need to overcome my misapprehensions.

 

[colin]

I'd really like to buy a microzed. $199 in USA, but buy from Europe for an eye watering $321. The checkout page gives Dollars and Euros so I can't see any form of typo.

Colin

 

[Tom Gardner]

On 02/06/14 15:00, colin wrote:
> I'd really like to buy a microzed. $199 in USA, but buy from Europe for an eye watering $321. The checkout page gives Dollars and Euros so I can't see any form of typo.

I bought from the US. Costs were:
- $199 MicroZed
- $48 shipping (Fedex)
- Ł24 VAT, paid by fedex, reimbursed by me...
- Ł11 Fedex fee
So the grand total was around Ł184 or approx $313. The fedex overhead fee rankled, but there wasn't much I could do about it.

 

[mnentwig]

sometimes I wonder whether the shipping cost rip-off is organized.
It is possible to ship at very low cost - Xess, Numato, Papilio prove that
But then, try to order a BeMicro CV (or many other Altera boards) t
Europe. Shipping costs about as much as the board itself, everywhere.

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