{"id":118,"date":"2011-06-18T09:40:41","date_gmt":"2011-06-18T09:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/?p=118"},"modified":"2017-04-16T15:34:36","modified_gmt":"2017-04-16T15:34:36","slug":"custom-designed-and-built-xilinx-fpga-boards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/?p=118","title":{"rendered":"Custom Designed and Built Xilinx FPGA boards"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Introduction<\/h3>\n<p>I designed a small (70mm X 65mm) FPGA board around a Xilinx Spartan 3 FPGA. I decided to make my own for the design experience and it would be cheaper overall than purchasing 4 pre-made boards (excluding time spent of course!). The board contains everything needed to program and run the FPGA + it includes extra memory (SDRAM + EEPROM) and plenty of I\/O. Due to the flexibility of the FPGA the boards can be used for many projects.<\/p>\n<h3>Features<\/h3>\n<p>The board was designed for the following components:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>-Spartan 3 XC3S400<\/li>\n<li>-2Mb PROM<\/li>\n<li>-16 bit (data size) SDRAM. Up to 256MB (I think) of RAM. Will be populated it 32MB chip. SRAM can also be used with a few mods.<\/li>\n<li>2 X 64KB EEPROM<\/li>\n<li>-8 LED&#8217;s<\/li>\n<li>-4 DIP switch<\/li>\n<li>-1 push switch<\/li>\n<li>-28 GP I\/O<\/li>\n<li>-Standard oscillator<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/block.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-130\" title=\"block\" src=\"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/block-293x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"293\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/block-293x300.png 293w, http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/block.png 471w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 293px) 100vw, 293px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Design<\/h3>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-118 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/?attachment_id=130'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/block-150x150.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/?attachment_id=132'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/brd-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/?attachment_id=133'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/IMG_1665-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/?attachment_id=134'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/IMG_1668-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/?attachment_id=135'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/IMG_1669-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/?attachment_id=136'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/PICT1558-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/?attachment_id=137'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/PICT1561-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/?attachment_id=138'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/PICT1571-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/?attachment_id=139'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/PICT1573-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/?attachment_id=140'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/PICT1576-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/?attachment_id=141'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/sch-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>The schematic entry and board design was done using <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cadsoft.de\/\">Eagle<\/a>. Eagle seems to be quite popular, but takes a bit of time to get used to. PCB-POOL also accepts the .brd files made by Eagle which made life easier.<\/p>\n<p>The boards were manufactured by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pcb-pool.com\/us_index.htm\">PCB-POOL<\/a>. The service they provided was excellent and the boards are very high quality, it cost about \u00a365 for the 4 boards.<\/p>\n<h3>Status<\/h3>\n<p>The board design works. I have made up 3 of the 4 boards which are being used in other projects. As you can see in the last picture, I used a linear voltage regulator instead of a DC\/DC converter, due to the low current needed of these supplies, this wont make much difference to power efficiency.<\/p>\n<p>I have also used SRAM instead of SDRAM on 2 of the boards. The pinout between the two is similar but I had to make a few modifcation which can be seen as the yellow wires in the pics<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introduction I designed a small (70mm X 65mm) FPGA board around a Xilinx Spartan 3 FPGA. I decided<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-projects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248,"href":"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions\/248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emtronics.co.uk\/wp_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}