Elektor Academy - FPGA Development Board

Although the Spartan 3 series are a bit old, they are fine (I'd use the Spartan 6 LX 9 myself- still has a non-BGA package).

Releasing the details via a conference at 2AM? Not so great. I hope you release a copy of the conference afterwards, on Youtube.

Like Stephane, I'm looking for a dedicated processor. However, I'm also looking for something that can handle high speed data input (100Msps 14-bit ADC) and output (USB2 High Speed, HDMI, maybe even multiple Ethernet 100 ports for distributed network computing). The expensive Dev Kits resort to FMC (FPGA Mezzanine Connector) and daughter boards. The FMC handles signal rates over 3Gbps. Your specified chip tops out at about 450MHz, so you should get achieve a much cheaper design.

A good interface is like the difference between a Ferrari in a traffic jam - and cruising down an open freeway.

Although the Spartan 3 series are a bit old, they are fine (I'd use the Spartan 6 LX 9 myself- still has a non-BGA package).

Releasing the details via a conference at 2AM? Not so great. I hope you release a copy of the conference afterwards, on Youtube.

Like Stephane, I'm looking for a dedicated processor. However, I'm also looking for something that can handle high speed data input (100Msps 14-bit ADC) and output (USB2 High Speed, HDMI, maybe even multiple Ethernet 100 ports for distributed network computing). The expensive Dev Kits resort to FMC (FPGA Mezzanine Connector) and daughter boards. The FMC handles signal rates over 3Gbps. Your specified chip tops out at about 450MHz, so you should get achieve a much cheaper design.

A good interface is like the difference between a Ferrari in a traffic jam - and cruising down an open freeway.

@Alan

You are not going to get all that whizzy stuff on a 70 euro board based on an ancient architecture and aimed at beginners.

Have a look at  http://www.latticesemi.com/products/developmenthardware/developmentkits/ecp3versadevelopmentkit/index.cfm

for $299 you get close, 2 tri-mode (10/100/1000) Ethernet ports, some fast serial IO, lots of LVDS compatible IO (for your ADC)  etc,

(and you get the design tools thrown in).

Or you could go ultra modern and try a Zynq board - the pricing is a bit uncertain ($299 for "academic" customers) but it would keep you busy for a while:

(search for Zedboard, Digilent)

Or best of all you can design your own board with a separate processor and FPGA and have exactly what you want - you can probably do all of it with free tools and $299 will pay for the bits and a board.

Michael Kellett

Funny you should mention Lattice. I started out with their Brevia2. It's the reason I Really Hope you have a decent interface... their USB connection sucks.  They went to the effor of including FTDI's 2232H USB controller on the board, then failed to implement a high speed interface.  Instead, they chose to put in a low speed serial interface. It doesn't even default to 9600bps - more like 112bps.

Truly, a Ferrari stuck in a permanent peak-hour traffic crawl.

If your design supports High Speed USB, and leaves about 24 pins open on an adaptor, I'd be happy to try "rolling my own" ADC board - like you suggest.

@ Allen,

It's not my design but it's really easy to get a high speed USB connection to an FPGA:

a) Use the FTDI 232H or 2232H   - these are very simple to use at both the FPGA and the USB host sides.

b) (much harder but might go even better) - usb device to ULPI on the FPGA and ULPI interfaced USB PHY in a separate chip (lots of work and no cheaper than FTDI)

To be fair to Lattice - the Brevia2 is a $49 part  - my understanding is that the FT2232H is mainly for JTAG but they have connected the B port (in a UART configuration) to the FPGA for user purposes. There is no reason you can't run it flat out (12Mbaud according to FTDI).

Michael Kellett