Xilinx Spartan E

What happend to the Spartan E?

Is it eaten up by the Spartan 3A
and 3AN?

The Spartan 3A starter kit from
Xilinx looks like it's from Digilent.
But the Digilent web site didn't show
the Spartan 3A development kit.

Brad Smallridge
Ai Vision
 

Brad Smallridge wrote:
> What happend to the Spartan E?

If you mean Spartan-3E, nothing happened to it.  It's still
readily available.

Yeah but you go to Xilinx web page and Spartan E
isn't on their main pages.  I wondering if they
are still new-design items.

"Eric Smith" <eric@brouhaha.com> wrote in message 
news:m3tzcfodpt.fsf@donnybrook.brouhaha.com...
> Brad Smallridge wrote:
>> What happend to the Spartan E?
>
> If you mean Spartan-3E, nothing happened to it.  It's still
> readily available. 

On Sep 17, 12:40=A0pm, "Brad Smallridge" <bradsmallri...@dslextreme.com>
wrote:

> > If you mean Spartan-3E, nothing happened to it. =A0It's still
> > readily available.

http://www.xilinx.com/products/silicon_solutions/fpgas/spartan_series/index=
.htm

"John_H"
http://www.xilinx.com/products/silicon_solutions/fpgas/spartan_series/index.htm

OK, so what? Doesn't say anything. 

On Sep 17, 3:45=A0pm, "Brad Smallridge" <bradsmallri...@dslextreme.com>
wrote:
> "John_H"http://www.xilinx.com/products/silicon_solutions/fpgas/spartan_se=
ries...
>
> OK, so what? Doesn't say anything.

And you haven't said anything either.
You keep saying "Spartan-E" yet inferring "Spartan-3E" despite a 2nd
underscore of this difference.
Xilinx is still selling devices introduced 10 years ago.
The S3E series is rather new, does not address the same market as S3A
(or S3 for some parts) and will be around for a very long time as
witnessed by the history of Xilinx device offerings.  If you have a
specific (long) timeframe, contacting your Xilinx sales rep would seem
to make the most sense.

Digilent has in the past been able to offer the boards to the public
directly after an initial period of time.  The S3E board was available
with the microblaze development kit board version for a short period
before it disappeared only to return a few months later.  Xilinx
emplys Digilent to design the boards and ends up limited as to what
they can offer on their website at what time.

So.  What is your real question and please be a little more complete
in what you ask.

I guess, John, I want to know if there is any
reason to design with the Spartan-3E now?

I know that Xilinx supports their chips for
a long time.

I called Digilent and a friendly fellow by the
name of Jim said that they helped with the design
of the Spartan-3AN starter kit, but they don't
sell it. And it appears that the kits, the Spartan-3E
starter kit and the NEXYS2, have Spartan-3E chips.

I do not have a specific long term use for this
product as you suggested. I am a Virtex user.

Brad Smallridge
Ai Vision

"John_H" <newsgroup@johnhandwork.com> wrote in message 
news:d38eb984-c2ad-4289-b0d1-a95e14e0d2d9@b2g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
On Sep 17, 3:45 pm, "Brad Smallridge" <bradsmallri...@dslextreme.com>
wrote:
> "John_H"http://www.xilinx.com/products/silicon_solutions/fpgas/spartan_series...
>
> OK, so what? Doesn't say anything.

And you haven't said anything either.
You keep saying "Spartan-E" yet inferring "Spartan-3E" despite a 2nd
underscore of this difference.
Xilinx is still selling devices introduced 10 years ago.
The S3E series is rather new, does not address the same market as S3A
(or S3 for some parts) and will be around for a very long time as
witnessed by the history of Xilinx device offerings.  If you have a
specific (long) timeframe, contacting your Xilinx sales rep would seem
to make the most sense.

Digilent has in the past been able to offer the boards to the public
directly after an initial period of time.  The S3E board was available
with the microblaze development kit board version for a short period
before it disappeared only to return a few months later.  Xilinx
emplys Digilent to design the boards and ends up limited as to what
they can offer on their website at what time.

So.  What is your real question and please be a little more complete
in what you ask. 

Brad Smallridge wrote:
> I guess, John, I want to know if there is any
> reason to design with the Spartan-3E now?
> 
> I know that Xilinx supports their chips for
> a long time.
> 
> I called Digilent and a friendly fellow by the
> name of Jim said that they helped with the design
> of the Spartan-3AN starter kit, but they don't
> sell it. And it appears that the kits, the Spartan-3E
> starter kit and the NEXYS2, have Spartan-3E chips.
> 
> I do not have a specific long term use for this
> product as you suggested. I am a Virtex user.
> 
> Brad Smallridge
> Ai Vision

Do you want an externally configured device without dedicated DSP 
hardware with a higher logic-to-I/O ratio that's not an outrageously 
large device available for the next 5-10 years?  If so, Spartan-3E is 
probably your choice.

S3E is cheaper on a comparable basis to S3.
S3E has more logic per I/O than S3A.
S3E has a lower top-end than S3: S31600E vs S35000(?)
S3A is I/O optimized to give the smallest die for a package-optimized 
I/O count with the logic filled in the rest of the space.
S3A-DSP has dedicated DSP blocks.
S3AN has on-board configuration memory for more secure device applications.

Rather than S3, then S4, then S5 lines, Xilinx chose to fractionate 
their S3-style offerings to more effectively address specific market 
segments, perhaps to avoid people dismissing the other family members as 
"dead."  There is no rumor of any of these devices disappearing.  The 
S3A/N devices are just the latest.  The S3E may not be on the FRONT page 
of the Xilinx site but is 2(-3) clicks away.

Thanks John.