Hi guys,
I am designing a new Stellaris based (LM3S9B92) platform for a POS
project.
Stellaris looked the best way to go for me (small package,MAC+PHY!!,easy to
start ROM libraries,reputable manufacturer and good price),I ran very
quickly out of i/o's. I was thinking about to use as a companion chip my
old faithful ATF1504 CPLD, but ATMEL has disappointed me lately with its
policy and prices to smaller customers. My requirements are very simple - a
mem mapped device for I/O port expansion and that's all. Every 64
macrocell/64 - 100 pin device would do. My main concern is the price and
availability. Since I am not familiar with with the policies of the various
CPLD manufacturers could you give me some directions ?
Which is the best way to go ? (Altera, Xilinx, Lattice) and which is the
more common used CPLD families ?
Thanks in advance,
Angelo
---------------------------------------
Posted through http://www.EmbeddedRelated.com
Best CPLD choice for a Stellaris platform
Started by ●October 3, 2010
Reply by ●October 3, 20102010-10-03
On 3 Oct, 08:39, "abrous" <abrous3d@n_o_s_p_a_m.hotmail.com> wrote:> Hi guys, > > I am designing a new Stellaris based (LM3S9B92) platform for a POS > project. > Stellaris looked the best way to go for me (small package,MAC+PHY!!,easy =to> start ROM libraries,reputable manufacturer and good price),I ran very > quickly out of i/o's. I was thinking about to use as a companion chip my > old faithful ATF1504 CPLD, but ATMEL has disappointed me lately with its > policy and prices to smaller customers. My requirements are very simple -=a> mem mapped device for I/O port expansion and that's all. Every 64 > macrocell/64 - 100 pin device would do. My main concern is the price and > availability. Since I am not familiar with with the policies of the vario=us> CPLD manufacturers could you give me some directions ? > Which is the best way to go ? (Altera, Xilinx, Lattice) and which is the > more common used CPLD families ? > > Thanks in advance, > > Angelo > > --------------------------------------- =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 > Posted throughhttp://www.EmbeddedRelated.comI'd use a bigger ARM chip. However, I like the Altera MAX II CPLDs. The software is easier to use than Xilinx's, and they seem to do more development with their devices than the latter.
Reply by ●October 3, 20102010-10-03
On Oct 3, 3:39=A0am, "abrous" <abrous3d@n_o_s_p_a_m.hotmail.com> wrote:> Hi guys, > > I am designing a new Stellaris based (LM3S9B92) platform for a POS > project. > Stellaris looked the best way to go for me (small package,MAC+PHY!!,easy =to> start ROM libraries,reputable manufacturer and good price),I ran very > quickly out of i/o's. I was thinking about to use as a companion chip my > old faithful ATF1504 CPLD, but ATMEL has disappointed me lately with its > policy and prices to smaller customers. My requirements are very simple -=a> mem mapped device for I/O port expansion and that's all. Every 64 > macrocell/64 - 100 pin device would do. My main concern is the price and > availability. Since I am not familiar with with the policies of the vario=us> CPLD manufacturers could you give me some directions ? > Which is the best way to go ? (Altera, Xilinx, Lattice) and which is the > more common used CPLD families ?I have been using the Lattice XP family which has a 3 kLUT part in a 100 pin QFP package (62 IOs). It has internal configuration Flash so you don't need to use flash in your MCU. I can get this for under $10 in qty 100 which is very competitive. I think when I have posted about this being the most cost effective FPGA I can find, others have posted parts that are similar, but not better that I recall. Lattice is stocked by Mouser and is easy to use. I think you have to pay for a version of their tools that includes a simulator, but a base version is free. Si Blue has some pretty nice parts when it comes to package and price, but I can't say how real they are. If you look into this company, please report back here what you find. Rick
Reply by ●October 3, 20102010-10-03
On Oct 3, 3:39=A0am, "abrous" <abrous3d@n_o_s_p_a_m.hotmail.com> wrote:> Hi guys, > > I am designing a new Stellaris based (LM3S9B92) platform for a POS > project. > Stellaris looked the best way to go for me (small package,MAC+PHY!!,easy =to> start ROM libraries,reputable manufacturer and good price),I ran very > quickly out of i/o's. I was thinking about to use as a companion chip my > old faithful ATF1504 CPLD, but ATMEL has disappointed me lately with its > policy and prices to smaller customers. My requirements are very simple -=a> mem mapped device for I/O port expansion and that's all. Every 64 > macrocell/64 - 100 pin device would do. My main concern is the price and > availability. Since I am not familiar with with the policies of the vario=us> CPLD manufacturers could you give me some directions ? > Which is the best way to go ? (Altera, Xilinx, Lattice) and which is the > more common used CPLD families ?I almost forgot. There are SPI and I2C I/O expander chips out there that are pretty inexpensive, up to 16 bits of I/O for $1 or $2. Rick
Reply by ●October 4, 20102010-10-04
On Sun, 3 Oct 2010 10:11:11 -0700 (PDT), rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> wrote:>On Oct 3, 3:39�am, "abrous" <abrous3d@n_o_s_p_a_m.hotmail.com> wrote: >> Hi guys, >> >> I am designing a new Stellaris based (LM3S9B92) platform for a POS >> project. >> Stellaris looked the best way to go for me (small package,MAC+PHY!!,easy to >> start ROM libraries,reputable manufacturer and good price),I ran very >> quickly out of i/o's. I was thinking about to use as a companion chip my >> old faithful ATF1504 CPLD, but ATMEL has disappointed me lately with its >> policy and prices to smaller customers. My requirements are very simple - a >> mem mapped device for I/O port expansion and that's all. Every 64 >> macrocell/64 - 100 pin device would do. My main concern is the price and >> availability. Since I am not familiar with with the policies of the various >> CPLD manufacturers could you give me some directions ? >> Which is the best way to go ? (Altera, Xilinx, Lattice) and which is the >> more common used CPLD families ? > >I almost forgot. There are SPI and I2C I/O expander chips out there >that are pretty inexpensive, up to 16 bits of I/O for $1 or $2. > >RickAnd don't forget the good old 74HC595 for output expansion at about $0.30 for 8 lines. An external low-end PIC/AVR/whatever is another option for IO expansion
Reply by ●October 4, 20102010-10-04
On Oct 4, 5:23=A0am, Mike Harrison <m...@whitewing.co.uk> wrote:> > An external low-end PIC/AVR/whatever is another option for IO expansionI've never done a price tradeoff to see if adding multiple MCUs is cheaper than using one with a larger pin count. As the pin count goes up, they typically provide more peripherals, more Flash, more RAM, etc, so I would think multiple MCUs could be less expensive. But it is more work getting the extra software written and debugged. But once you write an I/O expander function, it should be reusable. Rick
Reply by ●October 8, 20102010-10-08
On Oct 3, 8:39=A0pm, "abrous" <abrous3d@n_o_s_p_a_m.hotmail.com> wrote: I was thinking about to use as a companion chip my> old faithful ATF1504 CPLD, but ATMEL has disappointed me lately with its > policy and prices to smaller customers.What issues did you hit with ATF1504, as it shows as being widely available ? There is also ATF1508ASx/ATF1508BE/ATF1508RE in 100pins, and in 44 pins, the ATF1502 too . Alternatives would be XC2C64 and LC2064, but the Atmel parts have better logic density, well suited to IO expanders. If it is a fixed IO mix, then simple shift registers are still hard to beat. i2c expanders are more costly. -jg
Reply by ●October 9, 20102010-10-09
On Oct 3, 8:39=A0am, "abrous" <abrous3d@n_o_s_p_a_m.hotmail.com> wrote:> Hi guys, > > I am designing a new Stellaris based (LM3S9B92) platform for a POS > project. > Stellaris looked the best way to go for me (small package,MAC+PHY!!,easy =to> start ROM libraries,reputable manufacturer and good price),I ran very > quickly out of i/o's. I was thinking about to use as a companion chip my > old faithful ATF1504 CPLD, but ATMEL has disappointed me lately with its > policy and prices to smaller customers. My requirements are very simple -=a> mem mapped device for I/O port expansion and that's all. Every 64 > macrocell/64 - 100 pin device would do. My main concern is the price and > availability. Since I am not familiar with with the policies of the vario=us> CPLD manufacturers could you give me some directions ? > Which is the best way to go ? (Altera, Xilinx, Lattice) and which is the > more common used CPLD families ? > > Thanks in advance, > > Angelo > > --------------------------------------- =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 > Posted throughhttp://www.EmbeddedRelated.comWithout a speed requirement your question is nonsence. Without a volume requirement, your price/availability concern is nonsence as well. You could allways google "shift register" and save everyone alot of time and effort.
