[Gb-ccb] Spartan-3 development board

[Richard Lacasse]

I agree with John that the smaller part ought to be sufficient for testing the 
architecture.  The development system software ought to tell you whether the 
full up design will fit in the intended chip.  A few other nice things to note 
about the development board:

  - it has a  "parallel port" interface to get into
    the JTAG port of the board.  This should be useful
    for development.
  - it has a prom for holding the program.  Once the
    development is done, we can try burning one and
    make sure we understand how to do it.
  - it probably has access to enough I/O pins to allow
    testing of the ADC interface, radiometry signals,
    and USB interface.

Seems like quite a good deal.

Rich


John Ford wrote:

> Martin Shepherd writes:
>  > At the meeting last week in Green Bank, my understanding is that we
>  > essentially settled on using a 208 pin Spartan-3 FPGA. I have found an
>  > evaluation/development board for this chip, at the following URL:
>  > 
>  > http://www.em.avnet.com/evk/home/0,1719,RID%253D0%2526CID%253D7816%2526CCD%253DUSA%2526SID%253D6450%2526DID%253DADA%2526SRT%253D1%2526LID%253D6457%2526PVW%253D%2526BID%253DDF2%2526CTP%253DEVK,00.html
>  > 
>  > This board costs $99.
>  > 
>  > Since I don't yet know what to look for, could somebody please check
>  > the specs of this board, to see if it looks suitable for testing the
>  > FPGA code that I will be writing, and to verify whether it is actually
>  > using the FPGA that was suggested at the meeting?
> 
> It's a 50K gate version of the same FPGA.  The one we suggested is the
> XC2S300E-6PQ208C, which has 300K gates.
> 
> It should be fine for developing, but it might not hold the full 16
> channels plus USB plus timing generator code.  I don't know if they
> have a version with a bigger chip on it.  At $99.00, I'd go on and get
> it.  It will be perfect for developing the hard parts, that is, the
> USB interface, the program loading, and the timing generator.  You
> should be able to develop at least one channel of the data collection
> system, too.  It includes sample VHDL code, and all the other stuff
> you need for a quick start.  (We could always put the bigger chip on
> ourselves later on if we feel froggish...)
> 
> Since Martin's away, may I suggest somebody go ahead and order one so
> it will be ready to go when Martin gets back?
> 
> John
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