Design at the logic level for board-level
products is rare. If it can’t be done
with a microcontroller or two, then
what’s a designer to do? FPGAs have
been the answer for years, but FPGA
tools required a steep learning curve.
Likewise, FPGAs had a price premium
and high power requirements,
and external support requirements often proved challenging.
All of that has changed, though. Inexpensive FPGAs are
now the norm. High-performance products remain pricey, but
the bang for the buck is even higher. Low power has been the
mantra for micros, and the same is true for FPGAs. Moreover,
supporting an FPGA these days is a relatively simple design
exercise.
That leaves the learning curve, where
major improvements in FPGA development
tools have made a significant
difference. FPGA tool
designers have been pressed to
provide FPGA experts with the
required functionality while delivering
an interface that won’t send
novices screaming for the exits.
So, the next challenge involves
connecting the tools to the hardware,
which can be met by combining
the tools with a development board in a
kit. These kits have been around since
FPGAs first arrived, but the latest crop
no longer leaves designers hanging
with just development tools and a bare
FPGA with a few LEDs and switches
for peripherals.
Targeted kits now come with peripherals,
such as digital cameras, and firmware
and software to match. Some
target soft-core solutions (see “FPGAs Pushing MCUs As The
Platform Of Choice” at www.electronicdesign.com, ED Online
19149), where software developers can join the fray with
FPGAs already programmed with soft or hard cores plus the
accompanying peripherals and even operating systems. ARM’s
own Cortex-M1 Development Kit targets Altera’s Cyclone III
FPGA. The Cortex-M1 soft core is license-fee free on Altera’s line of products.
Still, designers need to consider their requirements and
options. FPGA kits under $50 open FPGA development to
virtually any designer, but beware the fine print, especially
when it comes to software. The 30-day cutoff for some tools
isn’t nearly enough time to even move up the learning curve, let
alone design a new product.
Similarly, free tools often lack the more advanced features of
their premium-priced cousins. Software modules, middleware,
and other intellectual property (IP) may also have hidden costs
when it comes to actual deployment.
FPGAs FROM THE SOURCE
Development kits are tools to get companies to buy more
FPGAs. As a result, it’s no surprise that major FPGA vendors
such as Actel, Altera, Lattice Semiconductor, and Xilinx all
provide a range of kits that highlight their various offerings.
A host of third parties provides kits as well. For
extensive hands-on reviews of these kits,
see Lab Bench Online at
www.electronicdesign.com.
The Spartan-3A DSP Edition of the
Xilinx XtremeDSP video starter kit is a
good example of a targeted kit
(Fig. 1).
The Micron VGA CMOS video camera
with tripod has an RJ-45 connector
for video signals, while another RJ-45
connector on the Spartan-3A DSP
3400A board provides Ethernet
access.
The board is representative of
higher-end solutions with expansion
capabilities. In this case, there
are two FPGA mezzanine card
(FMC) slots. One is populated
with Xilinx’s Xtreme DSP FMC
card with a pair of camera RJ-45
connectors in addition to video
output connectors, including S-video, composite video, and
digital video interface (DVI).
As with most FPGA development kits, the XtremeDSP kit
includes quite a bit of software, including Xilinx’s Integrated
Synthesis Environment (ISE), Embedded Development Kit
(EDK), and System Generator for DSP. The full-blown ISE is
good for only 60 days, but the slightly less functional WebPack
version doesn’t expire.
The 128-Mbyte compact-flash memory
card comes programmed with the System
ACE boot image, so it’s ready to run out of
the box. System ACE, which addresses system-
level configuration, can handle multiple
configurations. It also supports software storage
encryption.
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