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That's an interesting idea!! :) How much would that cost approx?

How about a kickstarter? 

All I am interested in having compute modules which i can stack up  +an ethernet interface for each of them to talk to fpga. 

non-volatile would spare extra chip but i am not sure about the speed though.

creating something like this =>http://vocore.io/store/index VoCore v1+dock (was very successful) maybe but with fpga

an example https://www.emtrion.de/en/cpu_sodimm_uebersicht.html and IDEAL CASE(=fpga+sodimm) but without fpga

If you can do that would give me your email address, i would really appreciate it, or a kickstarter campaign which would be the right idea i guess, then i would not have to pay everything by myself.

Thanks for the reply btw. 

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In short the product is "OPEN SOURCE FPGA(GOWIN) BASED COMPUTE MODULE WITH A GIGABIT ETHERNET INTERFACE RUNNING ON lowRISC" 

google brings nothing, i am pretty sure a kickstarter campaign would rock after i saw nandland successfully funded in 24 hours. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1531311296/nandland-go-board-your-fpga-playground?lang=de

any idea how i can promote this idea or find someone to work with?

HERE IS THE IDEA AS A REAL PRODUCT.

http://hackerboards.com/tiny-module-runs-linux-on-altera-arm-plus-fpga-chip/

http://www.mitydsp.com/product/mitysom-5csx/

it cost 500$, an open source version with cheap GOWIN FPGAs would make the difference.

here is the video but base board supports only one module,i would need lots of modules on a base board, everyone of them connected to an ethernet jack.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm working on a couple new experimental Papilio Designs that utilize a PCI Express Mini connector for SDRAM or any other high pin count and high speed peripheral.

One of them is the Papilio Nano with a reduced size DIP form factor. I should be posting more information soon.

Jack.

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@Felix - No problem.

Copacabana looks pretty good, but i think it is not opensource, probably thats the reason why they got stuck. (nothing new since 2008 )

Something like that would be awesome totally.

 

I dont know how but i guess we need to change the title of the thread :)

 

 

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Alvie,

It actually has your USB Controller Wing integrated into it. I figured we would test with that and the SDRAM on the mini PCIE connector first. If it all works then we can make another revision with the USB 2.0 High Speed chip.

I'm ordering parts now and will send you one once I build a couple of these little guys. :)

Jack.

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Really nice Jack! Thanks..

That looks really minimalistic, and stack-able and cool.

Few questions though, are the all pins available for use? Which FPGA are you gonna be using?

How much would it cost with international shipping? Did you think about the price?

Excuse my lack of understanding the subject but would it be able to run a small linux maybe + and ethernet shield? I don't know if it s gonna be a SoC or not. Just asking.

Thanks again.. 

 

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22 minutes ago, fpgadude said:

Few questions though, are the all pins available for use? Which FPGA are you gonna be using?

Going to use the Spartan 6 LX9 TQFP 144 for this since it is the cheapest and most readily available chip on the market.

This board has 32 pins available on the Wing headers, 8-12 are reserved for USB, and the remainder go to the high speed Mini PCI Express connector for things like memory, high speed ADC, high speed USB etc.

My goal with this board is to get the price way, way down. To the point where it would be a no brainer to throw this in a project and forget about it, like the Arduino. Everything I've done in this design is meant to cut costs:

  • I eliminated the costly FT2232D chip and replaced with a low cost USB transceiver. We go from $3-5 to $.60
  • Some projects need memory and others are just fine eliminating that expense. For maximum flexibility I will not include external memory but will allow people to add it if they need it using the Mini PCIe connector. SDRAM costs $3-5 and the connector should be around $.15-.60

Until I get a quote from a manufacturer I won't know the final price, but I'm hoping I can sell these for less then $30.

It should be possible to run a small linux and ethernet or wifi shield on this if the memory module is added. By using a socket we will have the flexibility to add DDR SDRAM... There is currently no working Papilio project for a small linux implementation, but there are some out there that should run if the time is put into it.

Jack.

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On 6/4/2016 at 10:13 PM, fpgadude said:

@Felix - No problem.

Copacabana looks pretty good, but i think it is not opensource, probably thats the reason why they got stuck. (nothing new since 2008 )

Something like that would be awesome totally.

 

I dont know how but i guess we need to change the title of the thread :)

 

 

it occurs to me that since the nano uses Alvie's USB Controller wing, and you can communicate with it, as Alvie showed with his MTP demo,

something like the copacabana could be done with PC side software talking to multiple NANO boards.

not that i would have any clue how to do it, but it certainly seems very doable.

@alvieboy - thoughts?

i have one of his proto USB controller wings but sadly i havent had time to play with it due to um time constraints.

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8 hours ago, Felix said:

it occurs to me that since the nano uses Alvie's USB Controller wing, and you can communicate with it, as Alvie showed with his MTP demo,

something like the copacabana could be done with PC side software talking to multiple NANO boards.

not that i would have any clue how to do it, but it certainly seems very doable.

@alvieboy - thoughts?

i have one of his proto USB controller wings but sadly i havent had time to play with it due to um time constraints.

Never heard of copacabana (except for being a brasilian city), care to share some links ?

Regarding the MTP (and SerialUSB)... much has been going on. Expect a much more mature library on next version, just fine-tuning some details.

Alvie

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copacabana is basically an I/O board that links a ton (120x Spartan 3's) to an interface.

its done in a PCI style form factor with 5-6 fpga per board plugged into the I/O board. 

they basically have a UI which can control the fpga's by uploading tasks. 

and once said task is done it gives it the next one.

their website which i linked above, shows how they ran a DES cracker for some contest

and its results.

sort of like distributed computing // seti@home // folding@home but all in the same box.

 

@ the library, looking forward to seeing it mate

 

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Ok, I think I fixed the last major bug in MTP transfer. I can now upload huge files (like 6MB) to Papilio [without storing the data, of course] with no transmission errors.

Let me try building a standalone .bit file so people can experiment with it (and report bugs - surely many will pop up).

The configuration is also more dynamic now. Example of a full USB + MPT setup:

 

void setup()
{
    Serial.begin(115200);
    SPIFlash.begin();
    MTPUSBDevice.begin(0x1D50, // Vendor
                       0x4000, // Product
                       "Gadget Factory", // USB Manufacturer
                       "Papilio Pro USB", // USB Product,
                       "2.0", // USB Serial number,

                       "Gadget Factory", // MTP Manufacturer
                       "Papilio Pro MTP device", // MTP Model
                       "1.0", // MTP version
                       "0123456789ABCDEF" // MTP Serial number
                      );

    mainStorage.setName("FPGA Firmware");
    mainStorage.setUUID("af5449fe-cbda-452e-9bdc-588b1d5eb8da");
    mainStorage.setCapacity( 8*1024*1024 ); // 8MB
    mainStorage.setFree( 8*1024*1024 );     // 8MB
    MTPUSBDevice.addStorage(&mainStorage);
}

 

You can have multiple storages. The main base class is abstract, so a storage can be anything you like - flash, virtual, memory, SD-card FAT, so on, so on.

 

Alvie

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Hi...as per my experience you can built the open source volatile fpga board. The Spartan 6 LX9 TQFP 144 is the cheapest and most readily available chip on the market.This board has 32 pins available on the Wing headers, 8-12 are reserved for USB, and the remainder go to the high speed Mini PCI Express connector for things like memory, high speed ADC, high speed USB etc. To the point where it would be a no brainer to throw this in a project and forget about it, like the Arduino.

turnkey pcb assembly

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Oh, on that note, about a non-volatile FPGA board - I've also been looking at the Ice40 chips from Lattice and should be putting together a prototype board with one of those chips soon too. The goal is to take advantage of the opensource IceStorm toolchain. Working with a group of FPGA guys to see what we can come up with.

Jack.

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