XC6SLX150:: any eval "essential" board?

[0db]

XC6SLX100 and XC6SLX150 seem to be available only in BGA form, and this is a big problem for me.
I don't need to have gadgets on the eval board, just the FPGA chip, a JTAG connector, and 200 pins.

Is there anything similar on the market?

[SiliconWizard]

Ztex used to have some: https://www.ztex.de/usb-fpga-1/usb-fpga-1.15.e.html
(maybe there was already a bit too much on the board, but that's the simplest I knew of.)
but.. they have obsoloted them in favor of boards with the new 7 series.

Likewise, I think QMTECH used to have a board with a Spartan 6 100T, but I can't find it anymore. They now have a board with an XC7A100T (Artix 7) which is pretty affordable.

Numato also still has boards with Spartan 6 FPGAs, but only up to LX45 AFAIR: https://numato.com/product-category/fpga-accelerated-computing/xilinx-spartan-6

[0db]

The Numato Mimas Spartan6 uses a Xilinx XC6SLX9 TQG144 FPGA and offers 70 user IOs.

Good, great board, but I need 200 IOs, and more dual port BRAM.

[SiliconWizard]

The Numato Mimas Spartan6 uses a Xilinx XC6SLX9 TQG144 FPGA and offers 70 user IOs.

Good, great board, but I need 200 IOs, and more dual port BRAM.

Take a look at all of them. As I said, they have boards with up to the LX45. (Probably still not enough for your needs if you want an LX100 or LX150, but certainly miles ahead an LX9.)
Take a look at the Saturn board and Waxwing board.

You could ask Ztex if they still have a few boards with Spartan 6 too. Who knows.

[0db]

Found a couple of LX150 essential boards with no gadgets, no soldered ram, and more than 200 I/O pins on a header, but the price is about 800 euro/board.

Interesting.

[SiliconWizard]

I guess the boards I mentioned with an LX45 were not enough for your needs (both in terms of FPGA and in terms of number of broken out IOs?)
Still, much cheaper.

I suppose you found boards there? https://www.hdl.co.jp/select/en/XCM.html
Nice boards, pricy.

Have you considered the new 7 series? I still use the Spartan 6 myself, but I know it's getting deprecated and considering the 7 series would likely make sense.
QMTECH has one board with an XC7A100T for $80. I think it has ~100 IOs broken out, maybe not enough for your needs.

As you saw, if you really need a board with a largish FPGA like this and a large number of IOs broken out, it's going to cost a pretty penny (and the fact the board contains a minimum of extra devices won't help much price-wise, because boards like what you're after are usually not targetted for the same users. They are often more for being integrated in other products, rather than being used as dev boards.

[0db]

~100 IOs broken out, maybe not enough for your needs.

>= 200 IOs at least.

I am tempted to pay someone to design and solder a couple of boards.

[SiliconWizard]

~100 IOs broken out, maybe not enough for your needs.

>= 200 IOs at least.

I am tempted to pay someone to design and solder a couple of boards.

I doubt it will cost you less than 800 euros/board, unless you can find someone that works for very little.
But if cost is not that much of an issue, and you want something custom, sure.

Some user here has already designed FPGA dev boards (was it asmi? not sure...), so they can chime in and tell you what they think about it.

[0db]

It's for a personal researching project. I am not paid for it, and I won't earn money on this. Costs are literally on my personal wallet.

It's to validate ideas. Ideas have no price. Prototypes do have costs 

[SiliconWizard]

I see.
Given your requirements, it IS going to have significant cost whatever option you choose. Your call.
You can maybe post your ad in the "Jobs" section if you're considering paying someone to do it.

(Just a thought - if this is a personal project and you want to validate ideas, I would personally try and restrict the prototype to something smaller to keep costs down. Now I don't know exactly what you want to validate and if it's really not possible to scale down your ideas while retaining the concepts.)

[dmendesf]

Original poster is lucky today:

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[ebclr]

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