Re: FPGA for PCI based servo control board

[John Kasunich <jmkasunich-at-worldnet.att.net>]

At 09:17 PM 4/6/03 -0400, John Sheahan wrote:

>On Sun, Apr 06, 2003 at 11:36:07AM -0400, John Kasunich wrote:
> >
> > Yes.  The daughterboard approach works for ethernet and parallel port.
> > It would be really cool if we could find a cable connector and a board
> > stacking (daughterboard) connector with the same PC footprint.  Then
> > the same I/O glass could be used to build a cable connected I/O board
> > for ISA/PCI, and a motherboard for an ethernet or EPP daughterboard.
> > I'll look into it.
>
>this seems to be a reasonable suggestion. The footprint of the
>daughter board can be pretty flexible, and will need some additional
>resource, like power. but they can be extra pins, unused for the socket.

Yes, those are solvable problems.

> > Great!  For you, the registers between the MAC and the control
> > hardware are internal, but I'd still like to have them defined so
> > the other designs will remain compatible.
> >
> > I've got a few hours today.  I'm gonna start a web page with
> > design documentation.  Doing this stuff in words only is very
> > frustrating.
> >

It's posted:
http://home.att.net/~jmkasunich/EMC_Docs/EMC_Home.htm

> > John, are you gonna be at NAMES or EMC Monday?  I'd love
> > to sit down with you, Craig, and some paper for a couple of
> > hours.  We could accomplish a lot.
>
>Travelling to the US from Australia is too hard right now :(
>And those full-body searches at the airport - yechhh.

I didn't realize you were on the bottom of the world.  How do
you keep from falling off?  ;-)   Sorry, you've probably heard that
a million times or so...

>Time I got my web page up and running too.
>BTW What schematic package do you use?
>I've got protel available. otherwise docs in ps / pdf / lyx works
>for me.

At work we use PowerLogic for schematic and PowerPCB for
layout.  I don't have either one at home, unfortunately.  I was
looking at the Express PCB tool for board layout, although
that limits you to buying the glass from them.  I think Express
PCB has a schematic tool that works with their layout tool,
but I'm not sure.  I was even considering using EasyCad for
my schematics.  It is a generic cad tool, no netlists or anything,
but the I/O board is simple enough that I could check it by hand.

I also have considered going into work on the weekends to work
on it, but I really don't want to do that.

Are there any free or really cheap tools out there?

John Kasunich