Minimal design for xilinx?

On 28 Jan, 01:19, <canest> wrote:
> I want to send off a pcb board design for a xiling xc9536 so that I
> can experiment with some simple verilog programs. I
> want the most minimal design, so I need one xiling
> plcc socket, one 0.1uF bypass capacitor, one jtag
> socket, and one led and resistor so that I can do some
> basic apps that play with the led. Will this work, do I
> need anything else?

Here is a simple design of mine:

http://www.geocities.com/leon_heller/pld_starter.html

Leon

canest wrote:

> I want to send off a pcb board design for a xiling xc9536 so that I
> can experiment with some simple verilog programs. I
> want the most minimal design, so I need one xiling
> plcc socket, one 0.1uF bypass capacitor, one jtag
> socket, and one led and resistor so that I can do some
> basic apps that play with the led. Will this work, do I
> need anything else?
> 
> 


Rather than making and then debugging your own board, go to the Xilinx 
website and look for the evaluation boards.  Diligent sells one for 
$49.00 that has an xc9572 and a coolrunner on it along with power supply 
and a breadboard area and a few LEDs.  They also sell one through xilinx 
that has one CPLD, plus a solderless breadboard, switches, 7 segment 
display and leds for $49-59.  For those costs, especially if it is a 
one-off to get you up the learning curve, you can't beat the kits.

> Rather than making and then debugging your own board, go to the Xilinx
> website and look for the evaluation boards.  Diligent sells one for
> $49.00 that has an xc9572 and a coolrunner on it along with power supply
> and a breadboard area and a few LEDs.  They also sell one through xilinx
> that has one CPLD, plus a solderless breadboard, switches, 7 segment
> display and leds for $49-59.  For those costs, especially if it is a

Yes, and then they charge another $80 for sending it to the UK.

> one-off to get you up the learning curve, you can't beat the kits.

On 2007-01-28, <canest> <> wrote:
>> They will be *very* simple.  If you want PC44, get at least a xc9572!
>
> I thought xc9536 *is* PC44?

They both are available in PC44, with compatible pinouts.  The '72
has twice as much internal logic to play with.

> Do I need three bypass caps, or just one? Is 0.1uF ok or

Yes.  As close to the power pins as possible.

> One microcell per register bit - 1 MHz = 20 bits = 2 ^ 20

Yes.  So if you want to see logic happen in "human time", supply the
chip with a slow clock that you can see the output.

As for those who say not to do it yourself, it depends on what you are
trying to learn.  If you want to play with Verilog or VHDL, you can do
it in a simulator.  If you want to see it in real hardware, buy a board.
If you want to learn how to build the board, build the board!  I built
something just like you describe several years ago and learned quite a
bit.  Not at all what I expected to learn, though!

-- 
Ben Jackson AD7GD
<ben@ben.com>
http://www.ben.com/

A agree with the others over the size concerns...

You're going to very quickly reach the limits of 36 macrocells....

Ben

<canest> wrote in message news:45bbfa1a$1_2@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com...
>I want to send off a pcb board design for a xiling xc9536 so that I
> can experiment with some simple verilog programs. I
> want the most minimal design, so I need one xiling
> plcc socket, one 0.1uF bypass capacitor, one jtag
> socket, and one led and resistor so that I can do some
> basic apps that play with the led. Will this work, do I
> need anything else?
>
> 

Nico Coesel wrote:

>>I thought xc9536 *is* PC44?
>>
>>    
>>
>I don't know if this device has luts/flipflops like the Virtex/Spartan
>which can hold a 16 bit shift register in one cell. If yes, a divide
>by up to 16 element can be put into one cell. Dividing 1MHz downto 1
>Hz takes 5 cascaded shift registers.
>
>  
>
The 95xx is a CPLD, not an FPGA.  A MUCH smaller device, with VERY
limited resources.  Great as a very simple bus controller, peripheral 
decoder,
or other simple piece of logic.  Equivalent to maybe 100 gates, 
depending a lot
on how you define a "gate".  It is NOTHING like a Virtex, or even Spartan,
except for the logo on the package.  If you know what a "PLD" is, this is a
bigger one, but only bigger by a small factor.

Jon

canest wrote:

>>Rather than making and then debugging your own board, go to the Xilinx
>>website and look for the evaluation boards.  Diligent sells one for
>>$49.00 that has an xc9572 and a coolrunner on it along with power supply
>>and a breadboard area and a few LEDs.  They also sell one through xilinx
>>that has one CPLD, plus a solderless breadboard, switches, 7 segment
>>display and leds for $49-59.  For those costs, especially if it is a
> 
> 
> Yes, and then they charge another $80 for sending it to the UK.
> 
> 
>>one-off to get you up the learning curve, you can't beat the kits.
> 
> 
> 

OK, fine, but even at $129-139, that is far cheaper than what it will 
cost to get your own board made.  You'll probably spend more than half 
of that just on the components, then you've got to do the artwork, have 
a board fabricated, stuff it, and debug it (which in itself is going to 
be non-trivial if you havent worked with CPLDs before) before you ever 
get to play with your simple design.  Even if your time is worth 
nothing, you'll come out ahead buying the eval board AND paying to have 
it shipped to you.

Ray Andraka wrote:
(snip)

> OK, fine, but even at $129-139, that is far cheaper than what it will 
> cost to get your own board made.  You'll probably spend more than half 
> of that just on the components, then you've got to do the artwork, have 
> a board fabricated, stuff it, and debug it (which in itself is going to 
> be non-trivial if you havent worked with CPLDs before) before you ever 
> get to play with your simple design.  Even if your time is worth 
> nothing, you'll come out ahead buying the eval board AND paying to have 
> it shipped to you.

Except that he won't get any practice in board design, fabrication,
stuffing, and debugging.

-- glen