Subject:
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Re: Yet another board
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics.handyboard
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Date:
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Tue, 20 Jul 1999 12:25:34 GMT
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Original-From:
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shsc9801@condor.+saynotospam+stcloudstate.edu
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Viewed:
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771 times
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Chuck,
I would probably buy it, even for $300. That is if it had all the
capabilities you specify and was able to handle all the various sensors and
hardware PWM that I currently am working with on the handyboard.
Scott
> Hello Everyone,
>
> I've had something of a vision, and I don't think it was spoiled food :-)
> And I'd like some feedback on it. Bear with me, it requires a bit of set up.
>
> After working with Handyboards, Miniboards, 6.270 Boards, BOTBoards and
> other 68HC11 boards I find I enjoy their easy programability but always
> seem to need some outside circuit to deal with a particular sensor, or other.
>
> Recently, on the advice of a friend, I purchased the "Xilinx Student
> Edition V1.5" from Amazon.com ($90, anyone is a "student"):
> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0136716296/ref=ed_oe_p/002-5447280-30
> 80618
> What this book is, is a students guide to learning about FPGAs (Field
> Programmable Gate Arrays), using Xilinx software. It includes all of the
> software necessary to design ten thousand gate equivalent FPGAs (XC4010XL
> parts). The final chapter/example in the book is building an 8 bit
> microprocessor in a single 5000 gate gate array!
>
> If you buy the book you get a coupon that lets you buy the XESS demoboard
> with an XC4005 chip (used for all the tutorials in the book) for $109. So
> for an investment of $200, you end up with everything you need to not only
> learn how to design FPGAs, but to implement them as well. Not a bad deal at
> all.
>
> The XESS demoboard manual is shown here:
> http://www.xess.com/FPGA/manual.html
>
> This board has an 8031 on it, 32K of SRAM, the Xilinx part, a parallel
> port, VGA type connector, 7 segment LED, and wall-wart to 5V&3V power
> supply. Its something like 2" by 4" in size. Both edges of the boards are
> rows of pins the are connected to the FPGA so you can plug the whole board
> into a solderless breadboard and use it that way, or strips of wire wrap
> headers.
>
> The Xilinx part is RAM based, meaning that you download your circuit design
> into it at powerup, or it can automatically read it from a serial EEPROM,
> and then you start using it. All in all it is a very cool board, if only it
> had a 68HC11 instead of an 8031 ...
>
> Flash back to my discussion with my FPGA expert friend who designed a 16
> bit RISC machine in one of these FPGAs. He was explaining to me how he
> loaded software into memory for his computer since there were no i/o
> devices attached except for a serial port. He said,
>
> "First, I download into the FPGA a serial UART and a DMA device
> which takes data from the serial port and deposits it into memory.
> Then I reset the board and download the CPU into the FPGA and the
> CPU starts executing the program out of memory."
>
> If that doesn't sound like Star Trek I don't know what does.
>
> So one morning, I woke up from a dream. And in my dream I had a robot board
> that had a 68HC11, some RAM, and the whole thing was hooked up to an FPGA
> in a socket next to it. There was a dual motor driver on board with its
> control pins hooked to the FPGA, the FPGA was connected to the 68HC11 bus
> signals, there were additional "high current" I/O pins connected to the
> FPGA as well as protected input pins. I had just finished downloading a PWM
> circuit that attached to the motor controller pins and implemented an i/o
> port in the 68HC11's address space. I then added a timer/interrupt circuit
> that controlled a sonar unit and a another device that I could write out
> servo positioning codes to and it would send out servo signals on the pins
> I specified. Then I added a 38Khz clock circuit (dividing out the CPU
> clock) that drove some IR LEDs that were being modulated and then monitored
> by a digital phase locked loop circuit. I'd used up a thousand gates in the
> FPGA and still had 4000 left so I implemented an additional serial port
> that could drive three pins and had it's interrupts on the 68HC11 IRQ pin.
>
> The scary thing is, this dream is not only possible, it would probably cost
> no more than a 20 - 30% premium over what a handyboard does today.
>
> So, I want to build this sucker (or have someone build it and I'll buy a
> bunch!) I figure the board would have an EEPROM for the FPGA so that a
> "standard" configuration could be loaded into it and sent with boards where
> the user didn't want or need to pay $100 to get the Xilinx tools. Maybe we
> could create a circuits library that could be downloaded into this board
> like a software library.
>
> Comments? Feedback? Would you buy one if it was available? Even if the kit
> cost $300? (rough guess based on a four layer board, F1 version of the
> 68HC11 and XC4005.)
>
> --Chuck
Scott Sherman
IT Spec. II
St. Cloud State University
720 4th Avenue South
Academic Computer Services
ECC Building, Room 101
(320) 255-4888
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Message is in Reply To:
| | [Fwd: 19200 serial link / IC site]
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| (...) Glad you brought that up. I would, of course, take code for the miniboard, fingerboard, etc. I use the F1 board myself. There are enough people out there who like to port things, anyway. I'll start working on it, but it'll take some time. I've (...) (25 years ago, 16-Jul-99, to lugnet.robotics.handyboard)
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