Hi. I want to get my brain around USB interfaces, how to design thehardware and the software, and eventually to find what economichardware solutions are available, and how USB hardware interfaces canbe arranged to make the best use of generic USB drivers to minimiseproblems associated with driver installation.It's not something that I've been able to investigate in thetime-limited projects that I've done as an electronic designer, and soI've tended to use RS485 interfaces or other alternatives. I've decidedthat It's high time that I understood USB, so I'll pick up theknowledge by occasionally dabbling with it at home over a period of afew months which is something that works OK for me.I'm not very good at reading screeds of technical description andretaining it in my memory, so I need to get my hands dirty with someexperimental design and coding that I can interact with to get theconcepts anchored in my mind. I'm reasonably competent in C, C++, VHDLand Verilog, and can code quite swiftly.To kick off, I'd like to get an FPGA board with a RAM-based FPGA thatcan be configured via a serial or USB cable to a laptop. For myexperiments, the board also needs a USB interface that passes the rawUSB data stream directly to the FPGA, or it should be easilyconvertible to do so. The FPGA needs to be big enough to holdopen-source HDL USB interfaces and to hold models that mimic theinterfaces to common USB equipment like flash keys, printers andmodems. Any suggestions? I'm aiming to keep the cost reasonable - $100to $150 say - and I'm prepared to put up with the limitations of freesoftware such as the speed-crippled Modelsim HDL simulator.-- Dave Farrance

Take a look at They have very elegant boards andexcelent abstraction of the USB link (Verilog and VHDL on the boardside and C++,Java and Python on Windows and Linux). Check theFrontPanel user's manual.Jim.Dave Farrance wrote:

FPGA board for USB experiments?

Jun 03, 2006 21 Replies

Rate this thread:

Vhdl.eu 20 years ago

Hi Dave,

Maybe you can look at FTDICHIP website they have boards with USB connections to FPGA's

formatting link

Kind Regards,

formatting link

Vote

chris.felton 20 years ago

Came across some USB FPGA information at the following sites.

formatting link

The Cypress FX2 chips seems to be a popular USB controller used. Also seen the FTDI in action, easier to use but not as much flexibility. Digilent and Opal Kelly boards have USB interfaces. But you can't mess around with the code.

Also the GnuRadio folks did a good job with a set of > Hi Dave,

Vote

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required