[Technology Report]
Spring "Board" To FPGA Design Success
FPGA developmnent boards run the gamut from simple evaluation cards to application-targeted models that let you explore options.
Along with the FPGA, the board packs two independent, high-speed, analog-to-digital converter (ADC) channels (14 bits at up to 105 Msamples/s); two independent, high-speed, digital-to-analog converter (DAC) channels (14 bits at up to 160 Msamples/s); two banks of ZBT SRAM (512 kwords by 32 bits/bank); a PCI 32-bit interface; and a USB 1.1 serial port. The kit also includes the company's FUSE software and the XtremeDSP development kit software CD.
THE HIGH END Xilinx supports the Virtex family with multiple cards that focus on specific aspects of different Virtex 4 family members. For instance, the Virtex-4 ML450 targets source-synchronous interfaces. It goes for $2262. Several Virtex II family evaluation and prototype boards range in price from $899 to $1400.
Some Virtex II Pro development boards that include the XC2VP70 FPGAs cost about $4995. These boards aim at high-speed serial designs based on the RocketI/O multigigabit transceivers embedded in the FPGA. The VP70 FPGA includes two PowerPC CPU cores, over 30k logic cells, 2.4 Mbits of SRAM, 136 18-bit multipliers, and 44 I/O lines.
Another development card for the II Pro series, the XC2VP7, may seem on the light side with only 11k logic cells. Don't be fooled, though, as it includes a PowerPC core, 792 kbits of RAM, 44 18-bit multipliers, and 396 I/O lines with eight Rocket I/O transceivers capable of 3-Gbit/s data transfers.
If you don't need high-speed I/O support, the MP310 development platform for embedded-system applications may be a good choice. Listing for $2495, it's also based on the Virtex-II Pro XC2VP30 FPGA. Many third-party development-board suppliers support the Virtex II, II Pro, and 4 families. Visit Xilinx's Web site to check out the list of suppliers.
The Stratix II family of FPGAs from Altera also sports a broad array of development platforms. They range from less than $1000 for a Nios development kit using the Stratix platform to as much as $4995 for a version for high-speed PCI evaluation. Going further up the scale, a $7995 high-speed development kit is based around the high-performance Stratix II GX devices that integrate multi-gigabit I/O channels.
These boards include a wide array of resources to support design development. For example, the PCI kit features 256 Mbytes of 333-MHz DDR SDRAM, 64 Mbytes of boot-block flash memory, flexible clocking options, differential I/O ports at rates of up to 800 Mbits/s, and a reference design with Windows software drivers.
The GX-based development kit is based on the EP1SGX40G Stratix FPGA, which supports serializer/ deserializer interfaces ranging from 622 Mbits/s to 3.125 Gbits/s. A large array of on-board connectors supports the many high-speed I/O options that can be implemented by the FPGA. This will ease the development of systems that incorporate 1-, 2-, or 10-Gbit/s Fibre Channel interfaces; OC-12/STM-4 and OC-48/STM-16 Sonet/SDH standards; SPI-4.2 interfaces; and many other high-speed interfaces.
With the Lattice ispXPGA evaluation board, designers will better understand the ispXPGA nonvolatile but infinitely reprogrammable FPGAs. The board includes the largest FPGA family member, the ispXPGA 1200.
This FPGA offers about 1.2 million gates, 414 kbits of embedded memory, another 246 kbits of distributed RAM, 20 high-speed serial lines (sysHSI ports), and 496 user I/O lines. On the card are 20 SMA connectors for accessing the high-speed serial signals.
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