> > Just one more question. I remember that in the 10K series (yes, I'm an old guy!) the block RAM > (EAB?) could also work in a fully asyncronous mode while the Xilinx devices at that time did not > have this feature (and I used it a lot!). Is it the same for Cyclone and Spartan? Does Cyclone > supports fully async block RAM while Spartan does not? >No, this mode is not available in the Cyclone. It was available till the ACEXs. That change costed me some time to convert a project and I still would like to use asynch. block RAMs as larger LUTs. Martin ---------------------------------------------- JOP - a Java Processor core for FPGAs: http://www.jopdesign.com/
EP1C12 or XC3S400?
Started by ●October 12, 2004
Reply by ●October 13, 20042004-10-13
Reply by ●October 13, 20042004-10-13
Arash Salarian wrote:> > "rickman" <spamgoeshere4@yahoo.com> wrote in message > news:416CB979.EC57FD01@yahoo.com... > > I looked at the Altium site and did not find the Spartan 3 modules you > > describe. Did you get this info directly from the sales people? > > > No, I found the information in the altium website. It seems they have just > recently modified the evaluation package and now offer it with Spartan 3. > Here is the online order form with the part number of the FPGAs on board. > http://www.altium.com/evaluation/ > It seems that the original offer included BOTH Xilinx and Altera's FPGAs (in > the form of daugther boards) but the new one comes separately.I found the offer, but I can't find any info on what the board is... I don't use Flash and I am not willing to download an exe file. Don't they even have a data sheet??? As someone else pointed out, they are selling this board as a way to evaluate their software. So I am not clear about what I can do with it without buying their software. I also would like to know more about the IO capabilities. I sort of doubt that a Flash presentation will give me much technical info. -- Rick "rickman" Collins rick.collins@XYarius.com Ignore the reply address. To email me use the above address with the XY removed. Arius - A Signal Processing Solutions Company Specializing in DSP and FPGA design URL http://www.arius.com 4 King Ave 301-682-7772 Voice Frederick, MD 21701-3110 301-682-7666 FAX
Reply by ●October 13, 20042004-10-13
On Wed, 13 Oct 2004, Simon Peacock wrote:> A word of caution here: > > Altium or Protel as it was called is a PCB software company... Nextar is > their FPGA development tools and both of these boards are designed to use > Altium's software. As such support outside this simple parameter will be > non existent. >Well... can't you just buy the devel. board and use the free Webpack or Quartus later ? (when the 30 day trial is finished). -- Sincerely, Jung Ko
Reply by ●October 14, 20042004-10-14
Jung Ko wrote:> > On Wed, 13 Oct 2004, Simon Peacock wrote: > > > A word of caution here: > > > > Altium or Protel as it was called is a PCB software company... Nextar is > > their FPGA development tools and both of these boards are designed to use > > Altium's software. As such support outside this simple parameter will be > > non existent. > > > > Well... can't you just buy the devel. board and use the free Webpack or > Quartus later ? (when the 30 day trial is finished).I belive there is a pretty good Spartan 3 dev board available for $99 that Xilinx supports (XC3S200 vs. XC3S400). I don't know of any that cheap from Altera. -- Rick "rickman" Collins rick.collins@XYarius.com Ignore the reply address. To email me use the above address with the XY removed. Arius - A Signal Processing Solutions Company Specializing in DSP and FPGA design URL http://www.arius.com 4 King Ave 301-682-7772 Voice Frederick, MD 21701-3110 301-682-7666 FAX
Reply by ●October 14, 20042004-10-14
"rickman" <spamgoeshere4@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:416E1A9B.35BCC6F2@yahoo.com...> Jung Ko wrote: >> >> On Wed, 13 Oct 2004, Simon Peacock wrote: >> >> > A word of caution here: >> > >> > Altium or Protel as it was called is a PCB software company... Nextar >> > is >> > their FPGA development tools and both of these boards are designed to >> > use >> > Altium's software. As such support outside this simple parameter will >> > be >> > non existent. >> > >> >> Well... can't you just buy the devel. board and use the free Webpack or >> Quartus later ? (when the 30 day trial is finished). > > I belive there is a pretty good Spartan 3 dev board available for $99 > that Xilinx supports (XC3S200 vs. XC3S400). I don't know of any that > cheap from Altera. >Altera's evaluation board is $99 but it includes XC3S400 while the board from the Xilinx is XC3S200 (though, personally I think the cyclone version is better because the FPGA has more resources than XC3S400). You can the Altera's board with the free version of the development software from Xilinx or Altera so I think this is an interesting offer. Btw, Rickman, you asked me about a direct link for the technical docs of the Altera's boards. I found it and that is it: http://www.dxpcentral.com/LiveDesign/default.asp The shematics for the Cyclone and Spartan version are: http://www.dxpcentral.com/LiveDesign/LiveDesign_EB_Schematics-Altera_Cyclone.pdf http://www.dxpcentral.com/LiveDesign/LiveDesign_EB_Schematics-xilinx_spartan.pdf and the technical reference manual is: http://www.dxpcentral.com/LiveDesign/LiveDesign_Eval_Board_Tech_Ref_Manual.pdf
Reply by ●October 14, 20042004-10-14
> Altera's evaluation board is $99 but it includes XC3S400 while the boardooops I mean the offer from Altium not Altera!
Reply by ●October 14, 20042004-10-14
"rickman" <spamgoeshere4@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:416D6C60.9480E66E@yahoo.com...> I found the offer, but I can't find any info on what the board is... I > don't use Flash and I am not willing to download an exe file. Don't > they even have a data sheet??? > > As someone else pointed out, they are selling this board as a way to > evaluate their software. So I am not clear about what I can do with it > without buying their software. I also would like to know more about the > IO capabilities. I sort of doubt that a Flash presentation will give me > much technical info.There are some links to the board documentation here: http://www.altium.com/dxpcentral/LiveDesign/ Schematics are here, apologies if the links wrap around: http://www.altium.com/dxpcentral/LiveDesign/LiveDesign_EB_Schematics-Altera_Cyclone.pdf http://www.altium.com/dxpcentral/LiveDesign/LiveDesign_EB_Schematics-xilinx_spartan.pdf http://www.altium.com/dxpcentral/LiveDesign/LiveDesign_Eval_Board_Tech_Ref_Manual.pdf Ripping text from the tech reference manual, correcting error in xtal frequency. The LiveDesign Evaluation Boards have the following features: . On-board FPGA Device . Dual 256Kx16 BIT FPGA configurable High Speed Static RAM . Audio System, Delta Sigma stereo DAC with user-adjustable corner frequency . Dual (stereo) miniature speakers with volume control . Audio Line Out and Headphone 2.5mm jacks with volume control . 6 Digit 7-Segment LED display . Fixed 50MHz clock . RS232 Serial Port . VGA Port . PS2 Mini DIN Mouse Port . PS2 Mini DIN PC Keyboard Port . 8-way DIP switch . LED array, 8 LEDS . Dual 20 pin I/O expansion headers with power supply selection links . User-defined TEST/RESET button Cheers, Tim -- Tim Simpson return address mostly is invalid
Reply by ●October 14, 20042004-10-14
Arash Salarian wrote:> > "rickman" <spamgoeshere4@yahoo.com> wrote in message > news:416E1A9B.35BCC6F2@yahoo.com... > > > I belive there is a pretty good Spartan 3 dev board available for $99 > > that Xilinx supports (XC3S200 vs. XC3S400). I don't know of any that > > cheap from Altera. > > > > Altera's evaluation board is $99 but it includes XC3S400 while the board > from the Xilinx is XC3S200 (though, personally I think the cyclone version > is better because the FPGA has more resources than XC3S400). You can the > Altera's board with the free version of the development software from Xilinx > or Altera so I think this is an interesting offer.I think you are confusing Altium with Altera. I have not been able to confirm that the Altium board is usable without the Altium software (demo version has a 30 day license only). There are JTAG ports on the board, but the use a connector for the PC parallel port. I also don't understand why there are *two* of them, soft and hard.> Btw, Rickman, you asked me about a direct link for the technical docs of the > Altera's boards. I found it and that is it: > http://www.dxpcentral.com/LiveDesign/default.aspYes, after nosing around on the web site I called Altium and they pointed me to the manual. But this still does not answer a lot of my questions. But it does show the user IO which is only 36 pins.> The shematics for the Cyclone and Spartan version are: > http://www.dxpcentral.com/LiveDesign/LiveDesign_EB_Schematics-Altera_Cyclone.pdf > http://www.dxpcentral.com/LiveDesign/LiveDesign_EB_Schematics-xilinx_spartan.pdf > > and the technical reference manual is: > http://www.dxpcentral.com/LiveDesign/LiveDesign_Eval_Board_Tech_Ref_Manual.pdfHave you been able to verify if this board can be used with conventional tools? Does it have connectors for a Xilinx or other cable? -- Rick "rickman" Collins rick.collins@XYarius.com Ignore the reply address. To email me use the above address with the XY removed. Arius - A Signal Processing Solutions Company Specializing in DSP and FPGA design URL http://www.arius.com 4 King Ave 301-682-7772 Voice Frederick, MD 21701-3110 301-682-7666 FAX
Reply by ●October 15, 20042004-10-15
Followup to: <416EE08B.443D61B5@yahoo.com> By author: john@bluepal.net In newsgroup: comp.arch.fpga> > Have you been able to verify if this board can be used with conventional > tools? Does it have connectors for a Xilinx or other cable? >Well, at least the schematics for the Altera version of the board has "Printer Port JTAG Interface - ByteBlaster compatible" in big letters on page 3. -hpa
Reply by ●October 15, 20042004-10-15
"rickman" <spamgoeshere4@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:416EE08B.443D61B5@yahoo.com...> I have not been able to > confirm that the Altium board is usable without the Altium software > (demo version has a 30 day license only). There are JTAG ports on the > board, but the use a connector for the PC parallel port. I also don't > understand why there are *two* of them, soft and hard.I remember to read it somewhere in the Altium site that says that the boards WORK without Altium software. Also, by looking at the schematics you can see that in the Altera's version, they say the interface is compatible with ByteBlaster and for the Xilinx version it has been written to be compatible with ISE. I could not find any Cyclone EP1C12 or Spartan 3 XC3S400 prototype board with more than just an FPGA on it under (I mean, with some RAM, connectors, programmer interface, ...) under $200 and it seems that the Altium's offering has a great price. The only thing that I find missing in this board is the lack of a AD/DA on board. It would be very nice if they could fit a fast AD/DA in the same board and keep the same price ;)
