Re: Homebrew STG card Update Cheap PCI Card

[Phil Wilshire <philwil-at-on-ramp.ior.com>]

Hi 
In looking for a Cheap PCI core I have used the 9050 stuff from PLXTech.
I also have been working with John Storrs to produce a programmable FPGA
add on daughter card.
THe prototye card is completed and working.
Any one interested ??

Regards
  Phil Wilshire

Paul Corner wrote:
> 
> Hi All
> 
> Progress is slow at the moment - The digital IO and glue logic is just about
> finalised, just the analog sections to go. It looks like I can fit it all into
> the required space.
> Although with all the recent discussion about USB and coments onthe Sensoray
> PCI card, is there going to be enough interest to make it worthwhile having a
> run of boards made.
> Time will tell - not that I have much to spare at the moment, so I may not be
> ready to get the PCB's made until the summer.
> 
> Jon - as a side note, Lattice sent me a CD with details of a 'free' PCI design.
> Subject to signing a NDA. Might be worth a closer look for anyone contemplating
> that route. Having looked at the FPGA chips, most of the logic could be burnt
> into just one chip. The real disadvantage of this is the pin counts on the
> chips. 178 pin QFP or worse, BGA packages ( surface mounted PGA's) and the pin
> count goes up with the gate density.
> 
> > > > Another possibility is to encode all the logic, both ISA interface,
> > > > digital I/O, and the encoder counters into a programmable gate
> > > > array device.  Then, the entire board would consist of one big
> > > > chip, like the Xilinx XC95160 and one or two A/D and D/A
> > > > chips.
> > >
> > > He's right about that... plus with canned PCI interface libraries
> > > (using these chips is like writing C code) interfacing to that more
> > > popular bus would no longer be unrealistic.
> >
> > I'm still looking for a cheap PCI library.  One that I know of is $9000.
> 
> Regards, Paul.