A cheap replacement for the now already antique XC95xx CPLD

[BigEd]

So, you want non-volatile, 5V tolerance, and low price? (Don't worry about extra features, it's really price you're thinking of)
The Mercury is $65
The OHO GODIL starts at €39.00 + VAT, and
The OHO GOP starts at €20 + VAT (3 of the 4 models are 5V tolerant, one of those is more expensive)

Among those 3 choices, the more expensive ones offer more I/Os.

(All of these are modules, not standalone components and not quite dev boards)

Cheers
Ed

[Dajgoro]

The OHO GOP starts at €20 + VAT the xc9572 is cheaper and has more macrocells.
The OHO GODIL starts at €39.00 Spartan-3E, much better, but expensive
The Mercury is $65 expensive
Ebay offers nothing, lets keep looking...

[BigEd]

Um, yes, for as long as they make XC95xx they will be cheaper, but surely the point of the thread is to find a replacement? If you want something cheaper than a module, you need to find a 5v tolerant chip!

[Arlet]

Also keep in mind that the FPGA is much more powerful than the CPLD, so it will be capable of absorbing external logic, like a keyboard interface, a UART, timers, memory interface, PWM, VGA, etc, With a bit of creativity, the end result may be cheaper than all the separate parts combined.

[Dajgoro]

Arlet wrote:

Also keep in mind that the FPGA is much more powerful than the CPLD, so it will be capable of absorbing external logic, like a keyboard interface, a UART, timers, memory interface, PWM, VGA, etc, With a bit of creativity, the end result may be cheaper than all the separate parts combined.

That is another reason i would like to have a FPGA.
I am not afraid of doing stuff with HDL, but i really hate hitting the macrocell limit on almost every project...
So the goal is to find something to replace the XC, but it should also offer more space for design as well. The Atmel chips are a bit bigger, but again it is the same order of magnitude.

[YT2095]

as I`m also searching for 5V tolerant CPLDs bigger than 128 cells, I came across these; http://uk.farnell.com/altera/epf8282alc ... dp/1549403

this one having 208 LEs in the PLCC package, but they go up to 504 LE`s in PLCC too.
here`s the data sheet for them: http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/134632.pdf

you can also download for free the S/ware and Lic file to support the Flex 8000 series FPGAs here;
https://www.altera.com/download/legacy/ ... seline.jsp

I`v already done this myself, and the s/ware seems fairly basic and will let me draw in Logic Gates (a deal breaker if it didn`t).
I`m not sure if it`s what You guys are after, but for me I`m certainly going to be buying a handfull of these ICs in the new year

[mark2112]

Dajgoro wrote:

Somebody was reading my thoughts.
http://micro-nova.com/mercury
But still, a bit too expensive for my budget.
But if there were only a stripped down version with no usb, ad, and oscillator...

Hello there! I helped develop Mercury

Just to let you know, we recently came out with a slightly lower-cost version of the Mercury board. (It has a smaller 50k FPGA and no external SRAM. Otherwise, it's the same.) We're currently selling this one for $49.

http://micro-nova.com/mercury

[ElEctric_EyE]

mark2112 wrote:

...we recently came out with a slightly lower-cost version of the Mercury board.http://micro-nova.com/mercury

cool stuff, we have some S3 fans here. Thanks for posting.

[enso]

I've been working on a low cost FPGA board for a while:

This is a Xilinx XC3S50 board with configuration flash, a crystal, an LED and regulators, with 60 IO pins. It fits quite a bit of logic, or even a 6502 core (Arlet's) with 8K RAM/ROM running at 100MHz and a UART in less than 1/2 available space.

Members of this board can order from me directly (PM me), US$20 (plus shipping) while supplies last. I will have a bunch of them at the end of the month.

The second board also has 128K of fast SRAM capable of running a 6502 at 45MHz (in preliminary tests). There is only one row of IOs (30 pins) as the rest are used by the SRAM and UART connector. US$25 (plus shipping) for 6502.org members.

I will soon start a new thread about these boards and of course publish all the specs and code I have available.

I am negotiating with manufacturers and trying to keep the price affordable. In the meantime I've arranged for a small run with parts I have in stock.

P.S. The pins in these prototypes are soldered on top, but they can be soldered down. With only one row down on each side they can be placed into a breadboard.

[BigEd]

Great boards and very nice to see that you'll sell them to us!

I assume they are 3V and not 5V tolerant? As such they don't quite address the replacement of XC95XX, but certainly deserve a thread of their own. And a mention in our FPGA dev board roundup thread (viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1787).

One question for you: did you also have a board which included a WDC 6502, different from these two?

Cheers
Ed

[Tor]

I'm very interested in the 128K board, but I don't know how much shipping would be to Norway. The board has a good price for me as it dips under the VAT/duty/charges/hassle limit.

-Tor

[enso]

The boards are officially 3.3V, but can work with 5V systems using a trick (a 300 ohm resistor and a setting that activates an internal diode CORRECTION: internal clamp diode is always on, so just a resistor should do it). I've never used Spartan 3 chips in 5V systems, but others have.

Shipping to Norway from US is $2.10 for first class and goes up quickly for any tracked services. Priority Mail is $23.95.

The boards are shipped without the pins attached (different people may wish to connect different pins), so they are rather flat and should be able to go first class in an envelope, but I found that a lot depends on who is at the post office desk and what mood they are in.

My other project, 6502 Playground uses a different chip (XC3S700AN) and has a 6502 onboard. It is not related to this one.

[BigEd]

Thanks for clarifying!

[enso]

A clarification after much searching:

Spartan 3 devices should work with 5V circuits with a simple 300 ohm resistor. The internal clamp diode is always enabled, so nothing else should be necessary.

[Arlet]

When interfacing 3.3V and 5V parts, keep in mind that the 3.3V high output voltage may not meet high voltage threshold requirements on the 5V part. Check your datasheets carefully.