Spartan-3E starter kit

Antti Lukats wrote:
> "Jim Granville" <no.spam@designtools.co.nz> schrieb im Newsbeitrag 
> news:4366a1ff$1@clear.net.nz...
> 
>>Antti Lukats wrote:
>>
>><snip>
>>
>>>sneak preview: on my harddisk I have a tool I call 'Logic Assembler' it 
>>>can serve as front end for almost any FPGA/PLD for what the vendor 
>>>fitter/mapper exists.
>>
>>Hi Antti,
>> Care to post some code examples ? Output format(s) ?
>>-jg
>>
> 
> main output format is vendor specific EDIF
> 
> input formats supported for now are logic assembler text mode or xilinx ISE 
> schematics.
> also working on netlist imports from CAE tools.
> 
> below is test code that work on Atmel FPSLIC starterboard.
> the output is processed with Atmel Figaro.
> 
> ----------------------
> .vendor atmel
> .family at94k
> .library at94k
> 
> input I
> output O
> 
> input I1
> output O1
> 
> 
> ibuf I_IBUF
> obuf O_OBUF
> 
> ibuf I_IBUF1
> obuf O_OBUF1
> 
> O = O_OBUF.PAD
> I_IBUF.PAD = I
> O_OBUF.A = I_IBUF.Q
> 
> O1 = O_OBUF1.PAD
> I_IBUF1.PAD = I1
> O_OBUF1.A = I_IBUF1.Q
> ----------------------
> 
> really simple.

Very interesting, I'm always a fan of KISS.
Do you have any examples of Fields, number bases, volatile variables, 
and Macros ?  [ or am I running ahead here ? ]

Can you mix this with HDL flows ?

-jg

I promised an answer. The digging took a bit longer...

The good news is that Xilinx has many thousands of S3e100 in TQ144, and
hundreds in vq100 packages, as well as many S3500 in several packages.
The bad new is that -today- these parts are still ES ("early silicon")
which distribution hates to touch, because  the parts will become
obsolete very soon, once the production version becomes available.

If you need them immediately, order them through your distributor or
your Xilinx sales folks. And realize that "6 to 8 weeks" is often
exaggerated.

Production S3e100 and 500s are expected this month, and 1600 soon
after. And the distis will love to sell them (which they consider their
job, even in Europe !).

I have held the almost final version of the S3e500-based evaluation
board in my hand. It is dynamite, loaded with features and peripherl
circuits, compatible with a slew of inexpensive Digilent add-on boards.
Availability starts in December. Well before that, there will be a
business-card-size eval board, packaged in a DVD-case, meant as a
super-low-cost S3e100 demonstrator.

Spartan3e is really rolling, and will soon be a big success. Too bad
that Marketing created expectations that were impossible to meet.
Keep the faith, Spartan3e is real, and it is coming!
Peter Alfke, Xilinx

On 2 Nov 2005 14:20:17 -0800, "Peter Alfke" <peter@xilinx.com> wrote:

>I promised an answer. The digging took a bit longer...
>
>The good news is that Xilinx has many thousands of S3e100 in TQ144, and
>hundreds in vq100 packages, as well as many S3500 in several packages.
>The bad new is that -today- these parts are still ES ("early silicon")
>which distribution hates to touch, because  the parts will become
>obsolete very soon, once the production version becomes available.

So why not put them in the web store....

"Peter Alfke" <peter@xilinx.com> wrote in news:1130970017.548080.12630
@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:

> I promised an answer. The digging took a bit longer...
> 
> The good news is that Xilinx has many thousands of S3e100 in TQ144, 
and
> hundreds in vq100 packages, as well as many S3500 in several packages.
> The bad new is that -today- these parts are still ES ("early silicon")
> which distribution hates to touch, because  the parts will become
> obsolete very soon, once the production version becomes available.
> 
> If you need them immediately, order them through your distributor or
> your Xilinx sales folks. And realize that "6 to 8 weeks" is often
> exaggerated.
> 
> Production S3e100 and 500s are expected this month, and 1600 soon
> after. And the distis will love to sell them (which they consider 
their
> job, even in Europe !).
> 
> I have held the almost final version of the S3e500-based evaluation
> board in my hand. It is dynamite, loaded with features and peripherl
> circuits, compatible with a slew of inexpensive Digilent add-on 
boards.
> Availability starts in December. Well before that, there will be a
> business-card-size eval board, packaged in a DVD-case, meant as a
> super-low-cost S3e100 demonstrator.
> 
> Spartan3e is really rolling, and will soon be a big success. Too bad
> that Marketing created expectations that were impossible to meet.
> Keep the faith, Spartan3e is real, and it is coming!
> Peter Alfke, Xilinx
> 

Can't wait for December to come! Can I book my order from now?

-Pratip

Peter wrote:
> I have held the almost final version of the S3e500-based evaluation
> board in my hand.

 Any chance of releasing the user manual before the boards show up?

> It is dynamite, loaded with features and peripherl circuits,
> compatible with a slew of inexpensive Digilent add-on boards.

 Does that mean Xilinx stuck with the (hopelessly outdated) 40 pins,
one ground (Note 1) I/O connector pinout of the older Digilent boards?

 Cheap evaluation boards are great resources, but continuing to
design and ship evaluation boards for sub-ns edge rate CMOS parts
with such a poorly grounded I/O header is just plain silly.

 Is there a decent high speed I/O connector provided? ( Doesn't even
have to be anything fancier than a dual row 0.1" header, just ground
one row of the connector, and properly route some diff pairs out )

or, as I suggested when the S3 board came out:
>
> The pinout probably was picked to match that of the the older
>Digilent boards; however, it looks like there's enough room on the
>layout to add a third row of ground pins so the end user could snip
>off the pre-stuffed two row headers and use a three row header instead.
>
> An I/O connector with diff. pair routing and provision for VRP/VRN
>resistors and VREF bank pins would also be handy.
>

Brian

(Note 1) and for anyone counting VCC pins as returns, the S3 eval kit
   has one plane VCC pin, no bypass caps nearby, with IO connector
   traces merrily crossing  VCC plane cuts

"Mike Harrison" <mike@whitewing.co.uk> wrote in message 
news:0uhim1pm7fn218r7fctq34a0qtaftfthr3@4ax.com...
> On 2 Nov 2005 14:20:17 -0800, "Peter Alfke" <peter@xilinx.com> wrote:
>
>>I promised an answer. The digging took a bit longer...
>>
>>The good news is that Xilinx has many thousands of S3e100 in TQ144, and
>>hundreds in vq100 packages, as well as many S3500 in several packages.
>>The bad new is that -today- these parts are still ES ("early silicon")
>>which distribution hates to touch, because  the parts will become
>>obsolete very soon, once the production version becomes available.
>
> So why not put them in the web store....

Yeah!
You'd think ES parts would be prime candidates for the web store.

-- Ed

Brian, your older comments must have fallen on good ears.
The S3e500-based evaluation board uses a two-row 100-pin connector with
(almost) one whole row dedicated to Ground.  Plus two legacy connectors
that are much smaller.
2 x 16 character LCD display, rotary shaft encoder input, USB
connector, plus other goodies...
The manual is still being written, and I offered some help.
December is the month...
Peter Alfke, Xilinx

Peter Alfke <peter@xilinx.com> wrote:
...
> December is the month...

Which year ;-)

-- 
Uwe Bonnes                bon@elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de

Institut fuer Kernphysik  Schlossgartenstrasse 9  64289 Darmstadt
--------- Tel. 06151 162516 -------- Fax. 06151 164321 ----------

"Uwe Bonnes" <bon@hertz.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de> schrieb im Newsbeitrag 
news:dkdroi$si4$1@lnx107.hrz.tu-darmstadt.de...
> Peter Alfke <peter@xilinx.com> wrote:
> ...
>> December is the month...
>
> Which year ;-)
>
> -- 
> Uwe Bonnes                bon@elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de
>
> Institut fuer Kernphysik  Schlossgartenstrasse 9  64289 Darmstadt
> --------- Tel. 06151 162516 -------- Fax. 06151 164321 ----------

Uwe,

December is the month every year, but its 2005 to get real
Christmas presents from Xilinx.

S3e is WAY best FPGA around, so if we have to wait a little
more lets try todo wait in piece, this goes more tomyself and
my kinda angry comments about s3e availability, I am sometimes
like a boy who wants its presents too early.

Antti 

Summary of this thread :

Peter Alfke wrote:

> I promised an answer. The digging took a bit longer...
> 
> The good news is that Xilinx has many thousands of S3e100 in TQ144, and
> hundreds in vq100 packages, as well as many S3500 in several packages.
> The bad new is that -today- these parts are still ES ("early silicon")
> which distribution hates to touch, because  the parts will become
> obsolete very soon, once the production version becomes available.
> 
> If you need them immediately, order them through your distributor or
> your Xilinx sales folks. And realize that "6 to 8 weeks" is often
> exaggerated.

Or the Xilinx web store ? - All that infrastructure, going to waste....

> 
> Production S3e100 and 500s are expected this month, and 1600 soon
> after. And the distis will love to sell them (which they consider their
> job, even in Europe !).

And they WILL be on the fast track to the Web-Store (surely?) ?

> 
> I have held the almost final version of the S3e500-based evaluation
> board in my hand. It is dynamite, loaded with features and peripherl
> circuits, compatible with a slew of inexpensive Digilent add-on boards.
> Availability starts in December. Well before that, there will be a
> business-card-size eval board, packaged in a DVD-case, meant as a
> super-low-cost S3e100 demonstrator.

"Well before" December is March, so I guess now we are in November,
i.e. "really close' to December, the info on that nice sounding
super-low-cost S3e100 demonstrator, is being posted on the web
as I write ?  - Photos, users manuals, actual Prices, usual stuff....

-jg