From: rickman Newsgroups: comp.arch.fpga Subject: Spartan IIE pinout compatibililty with Virtex E Date: Wed, 09 Jan 2002 12:57:26 -0500 Lines: 36 Message-ID: <3C3C8486.13479C08@yahoo.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: UmFuZG9tSVZsnS/mVNlyQpwbggq7bxU9r289dWtk9knfuGOpIniflUE/bclmkbcq X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 9 Jan 2002 17:57:20 GMT X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.74 [en] (Win95; U) X-Accept-Language: en Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.mailgate.org!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!feed2.news.rcn.net!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch comp.arch.fpga:13065 To the best of my knowledge, the Virtex chips are nearly pin identical with the Spartan II family. The only difference is the temperature sense diode was intended to be replaced with a power down function, but was removed from the final design and is now a pair of No Connects. As I look at the pinouts for the Spartan IIE family, I don't see the same level of pin compatiblity with the Virtex E family. Am I not reading the docs correctly, or are the pinouts different between these two families? I thought I had a solution to my problems with the power supply surge current of the Spartan II chips. I only need a (relatively) small number of 5 volt tolerant IOs in this design (~90). So I could split the FPGAs into an XC2S using an LDO from the 3.3 supply and a XC2Se running off the DSP core supply at 1.8 volts. By using different power voltages, the separate on board regulators could provide the high surge current each part needed and keep the total parts cost to a reasonable level for the standard board. But I am also looking for the option of using a higher density part in the XC2Se socket to be able to provide a lot of FPGA density for customers who want to roll their own FPGA designs. But it looks like the XC2Se is not pin compatible with the XCVe parts... Am I back to the drawing board??? -- Rick "rickman" Collins rick.collins@XYarius.com Ignore the reply address. To email me use the above address with the XY removed. Arius - A Signal Processing Solutions Company Specializing in DSP and FPGA design URL http://www.arius.com 4 King Ave 301-682-7772 Voice Frederick, MD 21701-3110 301-682-7666 FAX ###### Message-ID: <3C3C9FF8.8AB124EF@algor.co.uk> From: Rick Filipkiewicz X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.75 [en] (WinNT; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.arch.fpga Subject: Re: Spartan IIE pinout compatibililty with Virtex E References: <3C3C8486.13479C08@yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Organization: Algorithmics Ltd. Cache-Post-Path: mudchute.algor.co.uk!unknown@rfhome.algor.co.uk X-Cache: nntpcache 2.4.0b2 (see http://www.nntpcache.org/) Lines: 32 Date: Wed, 09 Jan 2002 19:54:32 +0000 NNTP-Posting-Host: 62.254.210.251 X-Complaints-To: abuse@ntlworld.com X-Trace: news6-win.server.ntlworld.com 1010606079 62.254.210.251 (Wed, 09 Jan 2002 19:54:39 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 09 Jan 2002 19:54:39 GMT Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.ifi.unizh.ch!1325263!news.imp.ch!fr.clara.net!heighliner.fr.clara.net!isdnet!btnet-peer1!btnet-peer0!btnet!news5-gui.server.ntli.net!ntli.net!news6-win.server.ntlworld.com.POSTED!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch comp.arch.fpga:13049 rickman wrote: > To the best of my knowledge, the Virtex chips are nearly pin identical > with the Spartan II family. The only difference is the temperature sense > diode was intended to be replaced with a power down function, but was > removed from the final design and is now a pair of No Connects. > > As I look at the pinouts for the Spartan IIE family, I don't see the > same level of pin compatiblity with the Virtex E family. Am I not > reading the docs correctly, or are the pinouts different between these > two families? > > I thought I had a solution to my problems with the power supply surge > current of the Spartan II chips. I only need a (relatively) small number > of 5 volt tolerant IOs in this design (~90). So I could split the FPGAs > into an XC2S using an LDO from the 3.3 supply and a XC2Se running off > the DSP core supply at 1.8 volts. By using different power voltages, the > separate on board regulators could provide the high surge current each > part needed and keep the total parts cost to a reasonable level for the > standard board. But I am also looking for the option of using a higher > density part in the XC2Se socket to be able to provide a lot of FPGA > density for customers who want to roll their own FPGA designs. But it > looks like the XC2Se is not pin compatible with the XCVe parts... Am I > back to the drawing board??? > I was just about to investigate the same idea. Looks like we've been bitten by the marketing dept. ###### From: rickman Newsgroups: comp.arch.fpga Subject: Re: Spartan IIE pinout compatibililty with Virtex E Date: Wed, 09 Jan 2002 15:11:14 -0500 Lines: 59 Message-ID: <3C3CA3E2.1B50B7E@yahoo.com> References: <3C3C8486.13479C08@yahoo.com> <3C3C9FF8.8AB124EF@algor.co.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: UmFuZG9tSVaoIfCbtGISwl234XwLh2qfKMtbj6YNcRZCySD0zvKZLTThQg5ZOfYO X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 9 Jan 2002 20:11:06 GMT X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.74 [en] (Win95; U) X-Accept-Language: en Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.mailgate.org!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!feed2.news.rcn.net!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch comp.arch.fpga:13064 Rick Filipkiewicz wrote: > > rickman wrote: > > > To the best of my knowledge, the Virtex chips are nearly pin identical > > with the Spartan II family. The only difference is the temperature sense > > diode was intended to be replaced with a power down function, but was > > removed from the final design and is now a pair of No Connects. > > > > As I look at the pinouts for the Spartan IIE family, I don't see the > > same level of pin compatiblity with the Virtex E family. Am I not > > reading the docs correctly, or are the pinouts different between these > > two families? > > > > I thought I had a solution to my problems with the power supply surge > > current of the Spartan II chips. I only need a (relatively) small number > > of 5 volt tolerant IOs in this design (~90). So I could split the FPGAs > > into an XC2S using an LDO from the 3.3 supply and a XC2Se running off > > the DSP core supply at 1.8 volts. By using different power voltages, the > > separate on board regulators could provide the high surge current each > > part needed and keep the total parts cost to a reasonable level for the > > standard board. But I am also looking for the option of using a higher > > density part in the XC2Se socket to be able to provide a lot of FPGA > > density for customers who want to roll their own FPGA designs. But it > > looks like the XC2Se is not pin compatible with the XCVe parts... Am I > > back to the drawing board??? > > > > I was just about to investigate the same idea. Looks like we've been bitten > by the marketing dept. Actually, I would bet this is the engineering department. I did not do a thorough comparison to see exactly what has changed (very, very tedious) but I did notice that some ground pins are have moved to power pins. It looks like they use thee power pins for each bank of IO pins on the XC2Se rather than the two power pins on the XCVe. I would guess that they had some trouble with power decoupling or other dv/dt effects from the power rather than the typical ground bounce effects that they had been so worried about. So rather than to stick with the devil that you know, they decided to add a new one :) It would have been nice to be able to offer one board with the dual build approach. -- Rick "rickman" Collins rick.collins@XYarius.com Ignore the reply address. To email me use the above address with the XY removed. Arius - A Signal Processing Solutions Company Specializing in DSP and FPGA design URL http://www.arius.com 4 King Ave 301-682-7772 Voice Frederick, MD 21701-3110 301-682-7666 FAX