FPGA in pcmcia card. How to tackle the current limit?

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Dear all:

Does anyone have experience with powering up FPGA inside a pcmcia card? I know the pcmcia has a limit on the maximum current we can draw from host. It is 1A. Is there any difficulities to power up the FPGA?

Can anyone share with me your experience on this regards?

Greatly appreciate your inputs.

 

[robotman]

Funny you should ask this question.

Most of the newer Xilinx FPGA have a large startup current (.5A or better). You should be cautious here.

As for solving it, there is no easy way. The voltages that are of concern are the core voltages. The good thing is that they are lower voltages (2.5V on spartans, 1.8 and 1.5 on Virtex (2)). The current on the 3.3V or 5.0V rail of the PCMCIA connector should be lower if you use a switcher. The bad news is, there is probably not enough height for the inductor on a type II card.

Good luck and be careful. I am pretty sure it has been done, the real question is the density on the part. The larger the density, the larger the startup current.

robotman