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Need suggestion on FPGA kit

Started by yeah October 9, 2007
Hi friends

I am working in a pvt concern.We are decided to purchase FPGA trainer
kit.
But we are confused with Xilinx-Virtex-5 and Altera-stratix-3.
Which one will be the better in configuration?
Feauture-wise which one will be better?
And which altera device has the feature of ML505 in Virtex-5?

Plz give up some ideas regarding thiz...

thanks

yeah wrote:
> Hi friends > > I am working in a pvt concern.We are decided to purchase FPGA trainer > kit. > But we are confused with Xilinx-Virtex-5 and Altera-stratix-3. > Which one will be the better in configuration? > Feauture-wise which one will be better? > And which altera device has the feature of ML505 in Virtex-5? > > Plz give up some ideas regarding thiz... > > thanks
You cannot receive appropriate guidance without communicating what you want to do with this board. General logic? Video? Embedded computing? Storage applications? PCIe peripherals? Let us know, please.
On Oct 9, 8:13 am, John_H <newsgr...@johnhandwork.com> wrote:
> yeah wrote: > > Hi friends > > > I am working in a pvt concern.We are decided to purchase FPGA trainer > > kit. > > But we are confused with Xilinx-Virtex-5 and Altera-stratix-3. > > Which one will be the better in configuration? > > Feauture-wise which one will be better? > > And which altera device has the feature of ML505 in Virtex-5? > > > Plz give up some ideas regarding thiz... > > > thanks > > You cannot receive appropriate guidance without communicating what you > want to do with this board. General logic? Video? Embedded computing? > Storage applications? PCIe peripherals? > > Let us know, please.
I agree with John_H. What do you want to do with the FPGA? I curious why you chose the Virtex-5 FPGA and a Stratix-3 FPGA? Are you looking for specific features? Do you have a limit on how much money you can spend? If you are new to FPGAs, then you may be better off starting with a simpler and cheaper board, for example a Xlinix Sparta-3E stater board ($150USD), and then moving on to the more complex and expensive ML505 board ($11195USD). I'm not familiar with Altera products, but I assume that they also have FPGA boards. Just my 2 cents. -Dave Pollum
Well,

All Virtex 5 family members:  LX, LXT, SX, SXT are all now in full
production.

Stratix 3 is sampling the first (and simplest) device.

There are no transceivers planned for Stratix 3.

Virtex 5 FXT is scheduled to be released, soon, for initial engineering
samples.  Contact your FAE for the early access program.

Other than actually having and shipping 65nm parts for almost one and
one half years with no competition at all, as opposed to just releasing
the first 65nm high performance FPGA one and one half years late to
market (which speaks to supply, and available feature sets and available
parts): you haven't given us enough information to really help you.

Austin
On 9 Okt., 16:57, austin <aus...@xilinx.com> wrote:
> Well, > > All Virtex 5 family members: LX, LXT, SX, SXT are all now in full > production.
ALL 5 ? I count 4 ? Antti
15 family members is what I count from the data sheet....

There is no such thing as SX (no transceivers).

Sorry about that, SX always is SXT.

http://direct.xilinx.com/bvdocs/publications/ds100.pdf

page 2, Table 1.

Austin

Antti wrote:
> On 9 Okt., 16:57, austin <aus...@xilinx.com> wrote: >> Well, >> >> All Virtex 5 family members: LX, LXT, SX, SXT are all now in full >> production. > > ALL 5 ? > I count 4 ? > > Antti >
On Oct 9, 10:24 pm, austin <aus...@xilinx.com> wrote:
> 15 family members is what I count from the data sheet.... > > There is no such thing as SX (no transceivers). > > Sorry about that, SX always is SXT. > > http://direct.xilinx.com/bvdocs/publications/ds100.pdf > > page 2, Table 1. > > Austin > > Antti wrote: > > On 9 Okt., 16:57, austin <aus...@xilinx.com> wrote: > >> Well, > > >> All Virtex 5 family members: LX, LXT, SX, SXT are all now in full > >> production. > > > ALL 5 ? > > I count 4 ? > > > Antti
thanks friends Our intention is to use the kit for embedded applications. The choice is "Virtex-5 LXT ML505 Evaluation Platform (HW-V5-ML505- UNI-G)". Is there any other FPGA kit which has better configuration(and feautures) in Altera than Virtex-5 specially for embedded applications.
It depends on what physical format you want. we get a lot of interest on our 
Hollybush1, Darnaw1 and Craignel1/2/3/4 in the embedded world because of 
their form factors. We will be adding Hollybush2 and the CR1 to that list 
before too long as well and they will have new and different things over 
what we already offer in boards for the embedded market. For details of 
these go http://www.enterpoint.co.uk/boardproducts.html.

John Adair
Enterpoint Ltd.

"yeah" <thiyagu.in@gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:1192006925.353130.28330@k79g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
> On Oct 9, 10:24 pm, austin <aus...@xilinx.com> wrote: >> 15 family members is what I count from the data sheet.... >> >> There is no such thing as SX (no transceivers). >> >> Sorry about that, SX always is SXT. >> >> http://direct.xilinx.com/bvdocs/publications/ds100.pdf >> >> page 2, Table 1. >> >> Austin >> >> Antti wrote: >> > On 9 Okt., 16:57, austin <aus...@xilinx.com> wrote: >> >> Well, >> >> >> All Virtex 5 family members: LX, LXT, SX, SXT are all now in full >> >> production. >> >> > ALL 5 ? >> > I count 4 ? >> >> > Antti > > thanks friends > > Our intention is to use the kit for embedded applications. > The choice is "Virtex-5 LXT ML505 Evaluation Platform (HW-V5-ML505- > UNI-G)". > Is there any other FPGA kit which has better configuration(and > feautures) in Altera than Virtex-5 specially for embedded > applications. > >
A good question,

This board is presently not available with a Virtex 5 FX part (which has
the IBM PowerPC(tm).  That will be available soon, as the Virtex 5 FX
family has not yet been announced for general ES shipments.

Until then, the LX and SX devices may be placed on this board, and you
may use the MicroBlaze soft processor.

So, the question is:  how powerful a processor is required?  As Altera
offers no hard embedded processor, and their NIOS2 is similar in
performance to our MicroBlaze, the IBM PowerPC represents quite a step
up in capability.

For example, full LINUX may be run by the PowerPC, but only LINUX-Lite
may run on the soft processors.  The reason for this is more advanced
processors have the memory management which is required by LINUX for all
of its features.

If you do not plan on running an operating system, or your operating
system is very simple, then either soft processor solution is probably
adequate.

If Altera had a competitive offering to the ML505 board, I am sure that
they would have posted here by now.

All V5 devices have a PCIe core, and combined with the transcievers, a
1, 2, or 4 lane PCIe interface is provided by this development pcb (I
think, but I would have to check to be sure -- the chip has the
capability, I just would have to see if the 505 is the right pcb, as I
haven't memorized all the numbers and features of the support platforms).

Austin

We have recently been using a Xilinx ML506 board with good effect as a 
logic verification platform.

In many cases we need to have a software interface to our designs in 
order to really debug them. The ML50X boards have a PCI Express 1x edge 
connector that allows you to plug the board into a pcie slot in a cheap PC.

The Virtex 5 T parts have the tranceivers and PCIe endpoint that really 
make it easy to get an interface up and running quickly. A skilled linux 
programmer put together a driver in an afternoon and now we are writing 
test programs against production firmware.

This is more work to get going than a vhdl testbench but it runs at full 
speed once you get it going. In our case, we are verifying DSP logic 
that requires hundreds of millions of clock cycles to really say it is 
working. With real hardware in the loop we can quickly write C test 
programs that loop over the entire parameter space of the design.

V5 PCIe really works!

   Pete


yeah wrote:
> Hi friends > > I am working in a pvt concern.We are decided to purchase FPGA trainer > kit. > But we are confused with Xilinx-Virtex-5 and Altera-stratix-3. > Which one will be the better in configuration? > Feauture-wise which one will be better? > And which altera device has the feature of ML505 in Virtex-5? > > Plz give up some ideas regarding thiz... > > thanks >