What is Avnet AVBUS and how to use it?

[javad]

I am planning to buy one of the avent fpga evaluation boards. In the board description has mentioned that its user I/Os are through AvBus connectivity. I find out I should buy AvBus Breakout Module too.

But I still don't know
"what is avbus and how to use it?"

Please help me.

 

[Big Boy]

avbus connector

AvBus is just a standard bus defined by AvNet for their products.

It define a set of signals over two connectors, and define the connector placement and spacing.

So, if you buy a daughterboard from AvNet, it will fit in any of their mainboard with AvBus.

I'm not sure, but I think that their products also have connectors on both sides of the board, one side male, one female. So, you could cascade daugterboard for example.

The connectors have IO like Address lines, Data lines, general IO, ...

The only thing though to take into account is that since you get four row of pins (two rows per connector) close to each others, you may have to design with multi-layer PCB, or be creative...

 

[javad]

avbus

Thank you, but could you provide me a document that describes AVBUS in detail?

 

[Big Boy]

av bus connector

Humm, you should contact AvNet directly for that. I don't have a board (yet!) and it's probably documented in their user manual provided with the board.

On their web site, they only have product briefs, but no user manuals The info I have is based on observations from the pictures and the different products available on their sites.

If you go via their web site to ask questions, it may be slow as they seem pretty busy, but maybe calling directly one local sales rep. would be faster.

I hope this can help, even though I'm may not be of too much help there

 

[javad]

avnet bus connector

Thank you for your good notes. Some one suggest me to buy my evaluation board from memec, but I see that they have their special interface too! (P160)
Do you have information about this interface?

 

[Big Boy]

korean av bus

Humm, nothing about the Memec board...

Well, the AvNet board does have a 50-pin header. This should be simpler, but less IO. With the other interface, you don't have the choice but to make your own PCB if you wish to interface to the connector.

Though, I did create double-sided PCB in the past. It's not that hard once you know some good PCB programs. Myself I use ProtelDXP, to end with Gerber files, and I send them to Olimex. Olimex does have a lot of advantages, pricewize and featurewize, compared to the PCB manufacturers here in North America. If you do so, just make sure you follow the rules and board size established by the PCB manufacturer.

The last thing you'll need is some skill in soldering the surface-mount connectors and components.

I mainly look at AvNet myself because their Spartan-III board have 400K gates, a lot of IO, have built-in high-speed interface (Ethernet), have a real video port (full 8-bits per color, with a video DAC), and especially, for their PCI form-factor (which can be slotted into a PCI port).

One of my future project is to add a daughterboard, with a second FPGA, and program the main FPGA as a PCI interface between the PC and the second FPGA. Then, from the PC, it will be possible to configure, on-the-fly, the 2nd FPGA. This will make a re-configurable hardware card, re-configurable by any software, to perform any specialized functions. For example, fast matrix operations, and operations that are usually found in vector computers. x86 processors always have lacked those high-end features, whith the closest thing approaching this being the MMX registers. Now, I could then just design a program that download a binary file to the target FPGA, and do those fast operations! Such boards does exist, if you're ready to put 2000$~5000$, but what if I could do something similar for less than 200$~300$ (by eventually creating a custom PCI card)... The thing for the high prices of those boards is the limited number of cards the companies sell, and the work staff involved in creating this single board. Now, this could be an intereting open-source project!!!