Compact FPGA Board?

I was thinking of designing something like that, with an Altera Cyclone EP1C100 (2,910 LEs) and an EPCS1 configuration device. I don't know how many gates 2,910 LEs is, but it might be enough for you.

Leon

--
Leon Heller, G1HSM
http://www.geocities.com/leon_heller

My company can do this work very quickly. PCBs - FPGA configuration - DC/DC. Spartan-II or Spartan-IIE would be great for.

Do you need onboard DC regulators ? Which kind connectors?

Laurent

Hi just my 0.02$ worth of tought If I remember my gate counting skill regarding Altera and LE's 15k Gates are roughly 750LE's. Marketing will make it any number:). But to be serious even a Cyclone EP1C3 in a TQFP package is 16X16mm in size add the small config mem to that and probably some power supplies (3.3V and 1.5V) and the board starts to grow. One possible solution is to use the new MAX2 family, the EPM1270 in TQFP144 is 22x22 mm has

1270 LE's (more than 15k gates) don't need config mem and has also a internal (not so accurate, but spect above 4MHz) clock. Furthermore only needs one power supply (3.3V). On the power side it is also less power hungry and you can probably do with a linear regulator and not use switch mode power (witch is a pest when coming to size, those darn inductors and caps are real board eaters).

Cheers Fredrik

Sounds suspiciously like credit card sz of which armoid comes to mind.

I have seen a no of weeny size boards but can't recall where, the low cost guys often have little formats

xess, burch, etc

regards

johnjakson_usa_com

Well, the board will be receiving power from another board, so I don't beleive DC regulators will be necessary. I was planning on making connections just using single wires, so whatever type of connectors work best for that would work.

What kind of pricing would I be looking at for a custom-made board? Like I said, I am looking for a relatively inexpensive solution. Thanks.

Sincerely, Darien A. Gothia

I didn't check the specs, but I saw some tiny FPGA boards at

J.

Should be possible. The boards here:

are 50mm x 30mm. The one on the left has an XC2S50E on the reverse side, and the power supply is a switcher. The other board has an XC2S30 on the reverse side, and a linear power supply.

We have some products a bit like this appearing shortly. If you want to let us know your requirements and quantities contact us through one the emails listed on our website and we can discuss it further offline.

John Adair Enterpoint Ltd. - Home of Broaddown2. The Ultimate Spartan3 Development Board.

This message is the personal opinion of the sender and not that necessarily that of Enterpoint Ltd.. Readers should make their own evaluation of the facts. No responsibility for error or inaccuracy is accepted.

Isn't linear require a heat dissapiation area? So, if a regulator is a consern, a variant with external regulator may me considered. Right?

Yeah, I looked at those, but they are just a little too big for what I need unfortunately.

-DAG

That's close to what I need, but it is still a bit too large unfortunately. The area I need is actually about 1/4th that of a credit card.

Yeah, I had gone through every board within my price range on that page... none of them were small enough. The only ones I've seen so far within the dimensions I require were the UC1394a series of PLCCs by Traquair.

Definately the right size, even with more features than I need, but I was unable to find any kind of pricing on it.

-DAG

Those look very much like what I need. If the plastic on the outside was removed it could perhaps fit within the dimensions I listed. Are they for sale? I tried looking on the website you posted, but couldn't find any information in the matter. More information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

-DAG

Prices are here:

Leon

--
Leon Heller, G1HSM
http://www.geocities.com/leon_heller

This one is a little larger (51mm x 44mm) but also less expensive:

It was designed in a way that you can cut off one of the B2B connectors to obtain an area of about 51mm x 31mm and still have 60 user I/Os.

Kolja Sulimma

Thanks for the link Kolja, that was one of the smallest ones I've seen for sale with such a large gate count. But I only have a couple millimeters leeway from the 40mm x 30mm x 10mm dimensions so I won't be able to use it, unfortunately.

Do you know of any smaller boards than this one?

-DAG

Well it seems that the board I need doesn't exist or at least no one knows of one and therefore I will need to design it myself. Like I said earlier, I don't know much about PCB design, so if someone could refer me to a good guide that would be great. Also, what software would be best to use considering what I require for my PCB (40x30x10 mm, flash ROM, oscillator, FPGA), also consider I'm running Windows XP. Thanks for any help.

-DAG

I know (from my own experience) that it is tempting to design something small and neat. But I have also seen many failures when there just was not enough room to complete the design properly. My advice is: Think twice ( or thrice) before committing to a very tight footprint. Peter Alfke ===================

Did you look at the ones at

- they are smaller than your target size ?

-jg

try

You could try this freeware version:

Philip

Philip Freidin Fliptronics