I am looking for an FPGA to use in my next board design. Efinix has some parts, although they are in very limited packaging. Everything is fairly find pitch BGA style, 0.4, 0.5 or 0.65 mm pitch.

I've not worked with BGAs of that pitch. Otherwise their parts are interesting.

One issue, the power up surge is 0.5A on the core VCC! That's a LOT! This design would have 8 chips in a system, drawing 4 amps on power up. That's pretty insane. Not sure this could be met, so may be a show stopper.

Then, there's the issue of not being able to get a working copy of the software until you buy an eval kit. That's very counter productive for many, since the software is something that needs to be checked out early in the process.

"We do not have a free version of the Efinity software. However, when you buy any of our development kits, you also get a software license and one year of upgrades. After the first year you can request a free maintenance renewal. The version you get is not a watered down web edition, it supports all of our FPGAs."

--

Rick C.

- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> writes:
> One issue, the power up surge is 0.5A on the core VCC! That's a LOT!
> This design would have 8 chips in a system, drawing 4 amps on power
> up. That's pretty insane. Not sure this could be met, so may be a
> show stopper.

What about by sequencing them, turning them on one at a time so they
don't surge simultaneously. That's a usual thing with power
electronics, motors, etc.

On Monday, July 11, 2022 at 11:43:42 PM UTC-4, Paul Rubin wrote:
> Rick C <gnuarm.del...@gmail.com> writes:
> > One issue, the power up surge is 0.5A on the core VCC! That's a LOT!
> > This design would have 8 chips in a system, drawing 4 amps on power
> > up. That's pretty insane. Not sure this could be met, so may be a
> > show stopper.
> What about by sequencing them, turning them on one at a time so they
> don't surge simultaneously. That's a usual thing with power
> electronics, motors, etc.

They aren't on the same module. One each on a module with eight modules per motherboard. The mother board is already designed. In fact, they had to make a modification on the 12V supply, because of a 150 uF cap on this rail on my current board. 1200 uF kept the rail at a low voltage for too long, and the supply shut down. They had to change a timing cap or something to give the power supply chip more time to disable the over current detect circuit.

--

Rick C.

+ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
+ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

On Tuesday, July 12, 2022 at 1:43:42 PM UTC+10, Paul Rubin wrote:
> Rick C <gnuarm.del...@gmail.com> writes:
> > One issue, the power up surge is 0.5A on the core VCC! That's a LOT!
> > This design would have 8 chips in a system, drawing 4 amps on power
> > up. That's pretty insane. Not sure this could be met, so may be a
> > show stopper.
> What about by sequencing them, turning them on one at a time so they
> don't surge simultaneously. That's a usual thing with power
> electronics, motors, etc.

I was naively suggest charging up a capacitor to use on start up.

Well, it looks like my long term plan, on the other thread, to get him to do a forth stack processor might be coming true. He was claiming to have done stack processors, but that could be done sort of lifo buffering to some set processing circuit for all we know. Maybe he is now looking at doing an actual forth stack processor to show me up?

Hold it! I'll do something like he does. I'll suggest the Amtel PolarFire low energy FPGA. I don't know if it's at all appropriate for the job, but it's the "truth" like he says. Oh, I actually told you what I was doing. I'm not very good at this trolling thing. I'm beaten again. Maybe nobody noticed how stupid that sounded, like what people think when people they troll my threads. Oh, how smart a troll I must be, not to work out simple circuit design with all my experience and education

(Something like PolarFire would have reduced start up current and neat instant start. To helpful for around here?).

On Tuesday, July 12, 2022 at 1:10:03 AM UTC+1, gnuarm.del...@gmail.com wrote:
> I am looking for an FPGA to use in my next board design. Efinix has some parts, although they are in very limited packaging. Everything is fairly find pitch BGA style, 0.4, 0.5 or 0.65 mm pitch.
>
> I've not worked with BGAs of that pitch. Otherwise their parts are interesting.
>
> One issue, the power up surge is 0.5A on the core VCC! That's a LOT! This design would have 8 chips in a system, drawing 4 amps on power up. That's pretty insane. Not sure this could be met, so may be a show stopper.
>
> Then, there's the issue of not being able to get a working copy of the software until you buy an eval kit. That's very counter productive for many, since the software is something that needs to be checked out early in the process.
>
> "We do not have a free version of the Efinity software. However, when you buy any of our development kits, you also get a software license and one year of upgrades. After the first year you can request a free maintenance renewal. The version you get is not a watered down web edition, it supports all of our FPGAs."
>
That SW policy is unusual these days, and pretty short-sighted IMO.

On Tuesday, July 12, 2022 at 5:53:41 AM UTC-4, Jon Nicoll wrote:
> On Tuesday, July 12, 2022 at 1:10:03 AM UTC+1, gnuarm.del...@gmail.com wrote:
> > I am looking for an FPGA to use in my next board design. Efinix has some parts, although they are in very limited packaging. Everything is fairly find pitch BGA style, 0.4, 0.5 or 0.65 mm pitch.
> >
> > I've not worked with BGAs of that pitch. Otherwise their parts are interesting.
> >
> > One issue, the power up surge is 0.5A on the core VCC! That's a LOT! This design would have 8 chips in a system, drawing 4 amps on power up. That's pretty insane. Not sure this could be met, so may be a show stopper.
> >
> > Then, there's the issue of not being able to get a working copy of the software until you buy an eval kit. That's very counter productive for many, since the software is something that needs to be checked out early in the process.
> >
> > "We do not have a free version of the Efinity software. However, when you buy any of our development kits, you also get a software license and one year of upgrades. After the first year you can request a free maintenance renewal. The version you get is not a watered down web edition, it supports all of our FPGAs."
> >
> That SW policy is unusual these days, and pretty short-sighted IMO.

I agree. It is especially short-sighted when the development boards are hard to get. The Efinix web site recommends the Xyloni at $35, and provides a link to Digikey where they are $75 and not in stock.

My memory is often short. A trick that can be used to incorporate an ADC into an FPGA is to use an LVDS input as a comparator to support a sigma-delta converter. Most FPGA vendors don't really support this, but I saw one who did... I just can't recall who it was! Doh!

--

Rick C.

-- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
-- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

On Tuesday, 12 July 2022 at 14:28:42 UTC+1, gnuarm.del...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Tuesday, July 12, 2022 at 5:53:41 AM UTC-4, Jon Nicoll wrote:
> > On Tuesday, July 12, 2022 at 1:10:03 AM UTC+1, gnuarm.del...@gmail.com wrote:
> > > I am looking for an FPGA to use in my next board design. Efinix has some parts, although they are in very limited packaging. Everything is fairly find pitch BGA style, 0.4, 0.5 or 0.65 mm pitch.
> > >
> > > I've not worked with BGAs of that pitch. Otherwise their parts are interesting.
> > >
> > > One issue, the power up surge is 0.5A on the core VCC! That's a LOT! This design would have 8 chips in a system, drawing 4 amps on power up. That's pretty insane. Not sure this could be met, so may be a show stopper.
> > >
> > > Then, there's the issue of not being able to get a working copy of the software until you buy an eval kit. That's very counter productive for many, since the software is something that needs to be checked out early in the process.
> > >
> > > "We do not have a free version of the Efinity software. However, when you buy any of our development kits, you also get a software license and one year of upgrades. After the first year you can request a free maintenance renewal. The version you get is not a watered down web edition, it supports all of our FPGAs."
> > >
> > That SW policy is unusual these days, and pretty short-sighted IMO.
> I agree. It is especially short-sighted when the development boards are hard to get. The Efinix web site recommends the Xyloni at $35, and provides a link to Digikey where they are $75 and not in stock.
>
> My memory is often short. A trick that can be used to incorporate an ADC into an FPGA is to use an LVDS input as a comparator to support a sigma-delta converter. Most FPGA vendors don't really support this, but I saw one who did... I just can't recall who it was! Doh!
>
> --
>
> Rick C.
>
> -- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
> -- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

6 TI60F225C-DK in stock and about 5000 chips T4F49C2
https://www.digikey.co.uk/en/products/detail/efinix,-inc./TI60F225C-DK/15672425?utm_adgroup=Evaluation%20Boards%20-%20Embedded%20-%20Complex%20Logic%20%28FPGA%2C%20CPLD%29&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Shopping_Product_Development%20Boards%2C%20Kits%2C%20Programmers&utm_term=&productid=15672425&gclid=CjwKCAjwt7SWBhAnEiwAx8ZLatbrRSmvd7iF5blw773xzj6_w7sYPwE3t9ybdJgo-YFLWDpQjFRQPBoC0l4QAvD_BwE

https://www.digikey.co.uk/en/products/detail/efinix,-inc./T4F49C2/11591382?utm_adgroup=Embedded%20-%20FPGAs%20%28Field%20Programmable%20Gate%20Array%29&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Shopping_Product_Integrated%20Circuits%20%28ICs%29&utm_term=&productid=11591382&gclid=CjwKCAjwt7SWBhAnEiwAx8ZLajLn2ohYv-fQlvkj15bw1ro0CQB7fumGIH2zissO69ApnHYw0GMA3BoCTgkQAvD_BwE