3rd Party/Other Boards and Kits

[jonathan.ross]

We've had trouble with some boards we've used in the past and as we're looking for a vendor for an upcoming project we'd like to solicit suggestions. We are looking for something specific (1Gb Ethernet, lots of memory/cache resources, Virtex-6 preferred, etc.), bust mostly we're concerned with the quality of the experience dealing with the vendor. I.E., which vendors have produced boards with the fewest problems, which have the best reference designs, and which are the fastest to fix problems and most available to deal with them when found? That sort of thing.Thanks.

[bassman59]

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jonathan.ross wrote:

We've had trouble with some boards we've used in the past and as we're looking for a vendor for an upcoming project we'd like to solicit suggestions. We are looking for something specific (1Gb Ethernet, lots of memory/cache resources, Virtex-6 preferred, etc.), bust mostly we're concerned with the quality of the experience dealing with the vendor. I.E., which vendors have produced boards with the fewest problems, which have the best reference designs, and which are the fastest to fix problems and most available to deal with them when found? That sort of thing.Thanks.

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How many boards do you need?

The best designs are your own -- they have all of the peripherals necessary, and nothing you don't need.

[jonathan.ross]

For our first design? 3

We do plan to do much more later, but those devices will need to be less powerful (smaller FPGAs, same resources). Though, the way my boss was talking today we could need as many as 15 very powerful devices. We're talking about the highest tier virtex-6 SX or HX at -2 speed grades, 2 DDR3 slots, and 4 QDRII modules for each. Then later on we were thinking several dozen lesser virtex chips on PCIe cards to client devices.

Would 3, 15, or dozens really admit a custom design solution affordably? 

[bassman59]

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jonathan.ross wrote:

For our first design? 3

We do plan to do much more later, but those devices will need to be less powerful (smaller FPGAs, same resources). Though, the way my boss was talking today we could need as many as 15 very powerful devices. We're talking about the highest tier virtex-6 SX or HX at -2 speed grades, 2 DDR3 slots, and 4 QDRII modules for each. Then later on we were thinking several dozen lesser virtex chips on PCIe cards to client devices.

Would 3, 15, or dozens really admit a custom design solution affordably? 

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If you have to make a small board that adapts an eval board/starter kit to your real world, you're already making a board. Do it right -- put the FPGA on it and you're good.

[jonathan.ross]

The resources we're missing are QDR and DDR3. Can an FMC card provide that without additional latency? Do such FMC cards exist?