Adapteva’s Parallella low cost open source hardware “supercomputer” is a board powered by Xilinx Zynq-7010/7020 dual core Cortex A9 + FPGA SoC and the company’s Ephipany epiphany coprocessor, that’s had a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2012 as the 16-core version sold for just $99, and is capable of handling applications such as image and video processing, and ray-tracing, and also comes with an OpenCL SDK. The board was fairly difficult to source after the crowdfunding campaign, and one the common complain of backers was the board had to be actively cooled by a fan. The company has fixed both issues by increasing slightly the price, and redesigning the board so that it can be passively cooled by a larger heatsink. There are now three versions of the parallela board: Parallella Microserver ($119) – Used as an Ethernet connected headless server Parallella Desktop ($149) – Used as a personal computer Parallella […]
Xilinx Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC Mini-Module Plus System-on-Module
In January 2014, Avnet announced Xilinx Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC Mini-ITX board featuring Xilinx Zynq-7045 or Zynq-7100 ARM + FPGA SoC, and more recently, the company has launched “Xilinx Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC Mini-Module Plus” systems-on-module (SoM) based on the same platforms, as well as a corresponding development kit including a baseboard and a power module. The SoM and development platform target PCI Express, embedded controllers, general-purpose prototyping, networking and communications, storage and servers, and Ethernet/Internet applications. Xilinx Zynq-7000 Mini-Module Plus specifications: SoC- Xilinx Zynq-7045 or Zynq-7100 dual core Cortex-A9 @ up to 1GHz with FPGA (350K or 444K logic cells) System Memory – 1GB DDR3 SDRAM Storage – 128MB parallel flash, 32MB QSPI flash, 8KB EEPROM, and micro SD slot Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet USB – USB 2.0 OTG port Debugging – USB UART, JTAG programming/configuration port, PJTAG header User’s IO via dual board-to-board connectors: 132 User I/O (66 […]
Low Cost Development Boards Giveaway: Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone Black, MicroZed, Minnowboard, and more
OpenSystems Media is organizing a giveaway of some development boards targeting hobbyists. They’ll have a draw for the boards at EELive in San Jose, at their booth #2009 on April 1-2, but if you can’t attend you can also get a change to win online. Here’s the list of board given away 2 Raspberry Pi Boards sponsored by Element14 2 BeagleBone Black Boards sponsored by Texas Instruments 2 Minnowboards sponsored by Intel 2 Gizmo Development Boards sponsored by Symmetry Microzed Board from Xilinx sponsored by Avnet Finboard Board from Analog Devices sponsored by Avnet 2 STMicroelectronics Nucleo Boards sponsored by Mouser You could also double your chances to win by tweeting the text below: I just entered to win a #DIY board from @embedded_mag from #EELive. Click here for your chance to #win http://bit.ly/EElivecontest #embedded I could not find any terms and conditions, so I’m not sure if the giveaway is […]
ZYBO Development Board Features Xilinx Zynq-7010 FPGA + ARM SoC, VGA and HDMI Output
Digilent ZYBO (ZYnq BOard) is a low cost development board powered by Xilinq Zynq-7010 SoC featuring a dual core ARM Cortex A9 processor and FPGA fabric. It’s using the same SoC as MicroZed, is in the same price range as it costs $189 ($125 for academic purpose), but adds video interfaces, namely bi-directional HDMI and VGA, that are not available in MicroZed. It does come however with less RAM (512 MB vs 1GB). Digilent ZYBO specifications: SoC – Xilinx ZYNQ XC7Z010-1CLG400C dual core Cortex A9 processor + FPGA with 28K Logic Cells (~430K ASIC gates). System Memory – 512MB x32 DDR3 w/ 1050Mbps bandwidth Storage – 128Mb Serial Flash w/ QSPI interface, MicroSD slot for Linux file system, EEPROM programmed with 48-bit globally unique EUI-48/64™ compatible identifier. Video I/O – Dual-role (Source/Sink) HDMI port, 16-bits per pixel VGA output port Audio I/O – Audio codec with headphone out, microphone and […]
Xilinx Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC Mini-ITX Development Board
Avnet has recently introduced Xilinx Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC Mini-ITX Development Board powered by the top of the range Xilinx Zynq-7045 or Zynq-7100 dual ARM Cortex A9 + FPGA SoC with 2 GB DDR3 SDRAM, PCIe Gen2 x16 Root Complex slot (x4 electrical), SATA-III interface, 10/100/1000 Ethernet PHY, and more. Target applications include PCI Express, embedded controllers, general-purpose prototyping, networking and communications, storage and servers and video applications. Here are the motherboard specifications: SoC – Xilinx XC7Z045/XC7Z100-2FFG900 dual core ARM Cortex A9 @ 800 MHz + Kintex-7 FPGA with respectively 350K Logic Cells (~5.2M gates) and 444K Logic Cells (~6.6M gates). System Memory – 1 GB PS DDR3 SDRAM, 1 GB PL DDR3 SDRAM Storage – 32 MB of QSPI Flash, 8 KB of I2C EEPROM, SATA-III Interface, and microSD Card Interface Real-Time Clock Connectivity – 10/100/1000 Ethernet Interface Video – LVDS Touch Panel Interface, HDMI Interface Audio – Audio input […]
$199 MicroZed is a Low Cost Version of Zedboard ARM+FPGA Linux Development Board
ZedBoard is a low cost development board based on Xilinx Zynq-7020 SoC featuring two Cortex A9 cores and FPGA fabric, together with lots of ports and expansion I/Os, and running Linux. The problem is that “low cost” for this type of board still means $395 (or around $300 for academia), and you only get to this price because it’s been subsidized, and the normal price is actually $495… That’s why Avnet has just come with a new version of the evaluation kit called microZed that sells for $199 and targets applications such as general Zynq-7000 AP SoC evaluation and prototyping, embedded system-on-module (SOM) applications, embedded vision, test & measurement, motor control and software-defined radio. MicroZed technical specifications: SoC – Xilinx XC7Z010-1CLG400C (Zynq-7010) System Memory – 1 GB of DDR3 SDRAM Storage – 128 Mb of QSPI Flash + Micro SD card interface Connectivity 10/100/1000M Ethernet USB 2.0 USB-UART User I/O […]
NI myRIO is an Education Platform Powered by Xilinx Zynq-Z7010
National Instruments has been working on a device called NI myRIO, an hardware & software platform that aims at giving engineering students the ability to design real systems quickly for automation, robotics, data logging or embedded systems. The hardware is based on Xilinx Zynq-7010 with a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor and an FPGA with 28,000 programmable logic cells, and features 10 analog inputs, 6 analog outputs, audio I/O channels, and up to 40 lines of digital input/output (DIO). NI myRIO Hardware Specifications: SoC – Xilinx Zynq-7010 with a dual core Cortex A9 processor and FPGA with 28,000 cells System Memory – Unknown Storage – Unknown Expansion Ports: myRIO exPansion Ports (MXP) – Two identical ports (MXP A and MXP B) with 4 analog inputs, 6 digital inputs/outputs, 2 analog outputs, 1 quad encoder, 3 PWMs, 1 UART, 1 I2C and 1 SPI by default. Ports configuration is customizable with Labview […]
$359 Red Pitaya Board Combines an Oscilloscope, a Spectrum Analyser, a Waveform Generator and More
If you need to setup an electronics lab, the cost of equipment such as an oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer, can quickly add up and become expensive. There are already some attempts at low cost measurement devices such as the $35 ExpEyes Junior or pocket size digital storage oscilloscopes (~$200), but those are far from the performance achieved with regular measurement devices. Red Pitaya measurement board brings the performance level and flexibility a bit higher, and stays relatively low cost at $359, with a Linux-based solution based on Xilinx Zynq dual Cortex A9 + FPGA SoC. Hardware Specifications: SoC – Xilinx Zynq Z7010 dual core Cortex A9 CPU + FPGA System Memory – 1GB DDR2 RAM Storage – microSD card slot (For system and FPGA images, and data) Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet USB – 2x micro USB ports (1 for power, 1 for console), and 1x USB 2.0 Host port Signals: 2x […]