Prototyping board offers multigigabit serial links

A new daughterboard in the HAPS family will give customers access to multigigabit serial links and embedded PowerPC processors.

A new daughterboard in the HAPS family will give customers access to multigigabit serial links and embedded PowerPC processors.

The new FPGAPRO_2x3 is on show this week on the Hardi Electronics booth at DAC in San Diego (Booth 1439).

The FPGAPRO_2x3 board can be used as a stand-alone to prototype ASIC designs up to 1 million ASIC gates or as an addon to HAPS multi-FPGA boards when higher capacity is needed.

Two or more FPGAPRO_2x3 boards can also be stacked on top of each other or connected together with high-speed ribbon coax cables.

All HAPS addon boards such as memories, communication, I/O and connector boards are compatible with FPGAPRO_2x3.

The new board uses either one Xilinx Virtex-II Pro XC2VP70 or XC2VP100 in the largest package, offering 20 multigigabit serial links, two embedded PowerPC processors and close to 1000 user I/Os.

Over 700 of these I/Os can be used in differential mode (LVDS), enabling long distance drive capability at transmission rates exceeding 800Mbit/s per channel.

The user I/Os are divided into three groups with separate power, which means that three different I/O voltages can be used at the same time.

Programming is done via a standard JTAG interface, from an onboard reprogrammable Flash memory or from the HAPS module CONF_1x1.

As with all HAPS boards, the data programmed into the FPGA can be encrypted by a battery-backed encryption key.

All necessary voltages are generated locally from a single external 5V source.

"FPGAPRO_2X3 is designed to interface efficiently with our PCIX board, both mechanically and electrically", stated Jonas Nilsson, Technical Manager of HAPS.

"These two boards fit together in an ordinary PCI/PCIX backplane.

If the single FPGA isn't big enough for the whole design, the designer can place parts of his design close to the PCIbus while the rest resides on an ordinary HAPS board or a second FPGAPRO_2X3".

"The RocketIO channels are very efficient for rapid data transfer between the boards".

The FPGAPRO_2x3 board is available today.

US pricing starts at $13,900.

European pricing is Eur 11,300.

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