News and New Products

FPGA-evaluation boards come with design software

By Paul Rako, Technical Editor -- EDN, 10/21/2009

Altium’s new NanoBoard 3000 embedded-system-development platform includes a board with an FPGA chip, an IR (infrared) remote control, and a 12-month license for Altium Designer schematic and FPGA software. Boards are available for Altera Cyclone III, Lattice  ECP2, and Xilinx Spartan-3AN FPGAs. The boards come with royalty-free IP (intellectual property) for functions such as a USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface, a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) stack, a touchscreen, a PS2 controller, and SVGA (super-video-graphics-array) capability. The units include three USB ports; an SVGA D-sub connection; eight RGB (red/green/blue) LEDs; and a 2.4-in., 320×230-pixel LCD with touchscreen.

Audio features include a stereo-digital-audio system with onboard power amplifiers and speakers, along with a MIDI (musical-instrument-digital-interface)-interface connector set. Four relays and four PWM (pulse-width-modulated) power drivers provide power management and motion control. Headers bring out 36 digital-I/O pins from the FPGA, and a connector provides access to 50 digital I/Os and to the audio system and power rails. An RJ-45 connecter provides either 10BaseT or 100BaseTX Ethernet connections. An IR receiver lets you provide command input from the remote-control unit. Other features include an SD (secure-digital)-Card reader; PS2 ports for keyboard and mouse; two connectors for RS-232 and RS-485 ports; a four-channel, 8-bit ADC; and a four-channel, 8-bit DAC.

Altium is developing a wireless peripheral-add-on board, for release in December, that supports GSM (global system for mobile) communications, GPS (global-positioning system), and Bluetooth. The Xilinx Spartan AN3 Nanoboard is available now. The Altera Cyclone III and the Lattice ECP2 boards will be available in December. They sell for $395 each, including software, a desktop stand, a speaker-board subassembly, a power-supply module, four power cords for worldwide outlets, a USB cable, an IR remote-control unit with two AAA batteries, an LCD stylus, four jumpers, a volume knob, and an LCD-cleaning cloth. An external enclosure is available for $129.