In the comments to Brian Bailey's recent blog Getting Inside Your FPGA Design, All Programmable Planet (APP) member -- and valued contributor to our live online weekly chats -- Garcia Lasheras offered an interesting suggestion.
Garcia's idea was that we -- the members of All Programmable Planet -- undoubtedly have a lot of different FPGA development boards between us. In some cases, of course, we have more than our fair share, as is evidenced by The Mighty Hamster's Desert Island FPGA Boards column. And that column was several months ago -- goodness knows how many boards The Mighty Hamster has now. We certainly know that he's added a ZedBoard to his collection since those far-off times.
Furthermore, Garcia suggested that if members knew which boards were owned by other members, then we would all know where to go if we had questions about a particular system, such as "What does this red-flashing LED mean?" or "How do I get the smoke back in?" (With regard to the "smoke" question, also see my blog on the Smoke Re-concentrator for refurbishing blown electronic components.)
The Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC-based ZedBoard.
Personally, I think this is a brilliant idea. Actually, let's not limit ourselves only to FPGA development and/or evaluation boards. Since a lot of APP members are also proficient with microcontrollers, I would suggest we also add MCU development and/or evaluation boards into the mix.
OK, over to you -- this is where you post your comments describing which boards you have. Later, if you have a question about a board, you can simply reply to that person's comment. Alternatively, if you email me at max.maxfield@ubm.com, then I will be happy to facilitate communication between you and the board's owner.
Well said intseeker "Feels like this blog was dedicated to me. I am pretty sure Max also practices telepathy in his spare time." I feel you're not the only one Max also seems to be collecting interesting stuff.
Max Maxfield 2/8/2013 8:59:34 AM User Rank Blogger
Re: my HW collection
@aventuri: Thanks so much for your detailed descriptions -- please keep us up to date with your SDR project -- if you wish in the future you could send a project write-up to me (max.maxfield@ubm.com) and I could post it as a blog -- like I did in this Crusty Stuff blog for Crusty
as it seems everyone writing above, i'm too excited to share my "porn collection" :-) of FPGAs (and "less smart" cousins MCUs).
first of all, i've got a pretty expensive Xilinx SP605 with a Spartan6 LX45T (and a FMC daughter card for SDR stuff where i plan to port the Gnuradio USRP design for the TX route). that's running on my bench.
for "on the road" hacking, i too have a Papilio Pro (with add on Arcade megawing.. oh boy, what a feeeling when playing with the Pacman design ; is truly unbelievable for us "forty something"..)
my last FPGA board is really a niche product, the open source project "bunnie's" NeTV card. That's a SP6LX9 based design with HDMI in and out, and a linux based chip (Marvell PXA168) as companion. I've got it for the clever design and those HDMI in&out ports.. i think it would deserve a better recognition from the market!
that's all..i'm not going to purchase anything more in the near future for some reasons like:
there's already TOO much to learn and test with all this stuff already :-)
the "seven" generation of Xilinx device are:
too expensive (i've just seen the Artix devel board price tag..)
or a bit "cumbersome" (don't get it too straight, but at least this is my first impression after attending a Speedway day on the Zedboard.. delving on it, i think it would steer me away on the FPGA basics i want to learn and master NOW..),
i won't test the "other vendor" devel boards because i can't afford to switch on another "environment", my mind would blow out, and i really think that overall Xilinx IDE is quite ahead.. :-)
i'm of course open to answer any question, i'm slowly trying to put together some useful "design" on a web page somewhere for people to look at.
finally, let me too greet loudly hamster for his "uber valuable" educational book (and his commitment to write helpful posts!). man you're great!
Andrea
PS. i'll add here at the bottom the MCU-like gadget 'm actually toying with, but i really think FPGAs are playing on another (major) league.. :-)
i've got a cubieboard, based on a dirty cheap SOC from China: Allwinner A10. the good of it (apart the budget price of 50$) is that it has all the SOC pins exposed on two long rails. that feature alone looks to me the "key" for a design to be called a "development board". anyway it's sitting on my desk here since a week and i've not been able to power it on at least to check it's not a DOA! :-)
Feels like this blog was dedicated to me. I am pretty sure Max also practices telephaty in his spare time.
It will likely be one of my favorite blogs, Max!
Unlike Duane who has lost count of the boards he is using, I can count mine with the toes of my left foot. Half of my professional life I have been in software engneering development . Much longer than I have dealt with dev borads. Half of my time I was teaching control systems theory and Maxwell equations, and some basic digital electronics, the later part of which, I was pushing digital circuit design with VHDL.
I will get back with you with the model numbers: On FPGA a couple of versions of Digilent BASYS 1 & 2 boards with a Spartan chip, and a fairly new Altera, both for educational purposes. On the MCU I have been using a Teemsy++ board and the MSP430 Experimenter Launchpad board. Love it for it's potential ULP features.
If you ask most people if they can explain how mirrors work, their knee-jerk reaction will be, "Yes, of course!" After reading this blog they may change their minds...
One alternative to parallel interconnect in the form of busses is to use a serial interconnect setup. This typically involves a special transceiver block inside the device.
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