Avnet, Xilinx team on FPGA development kits

At the Embedded Systems Conference, the Avnet Electronics Marketing operating group of Avnet Inc teamed up with Xilinx to preview the release of the Xilinx Spartan-6 LX16 evaluation kit and Spartan-6 LX150T development kit. Both kits support the new FMC expansion standard, which accommodates add-on modules and easy customization when working with FPGA applications. The kits will officially be announced September 29 and will be available to customers by year-end.The Spartan-6 LX16 evaluation kit is based on the Spartan-6 LX16 FPGA and showcases a system-level approach to low power design for the Spartan-6 family. Designed for use as a general purpose FPGA development board, the low-power design also makes the kit ideal for portable instrumentation and battery powered applications. Indeed, said Jim Beneke, VP of global technical marketing at Avnet, customers can use the board itself as an instrument. To emphasize low-power applications, he said, the kit is powered through an included lithium ion battery or a USB cable connection. The low-power capability is enabled by optimized power technology from Texas Instruments. The new PSoC 3 controller from Cypress adds USB connectivity, an LCD interface, programmable analog, and FPGA configuration support. The board provides a low pin count FMC expansion connector for adding FMC daughter cards and sells for $225. This kit will be available for shipment later this year. Raj Seelam, senior marketing manager for platform solutions at Xilinx, said Xilinx offers a $295 version that emphasizes flexibility rather than power.

The Spartan-6 LX150T FPGA development kit, Beneke said, is suitable for video, industrial networking and control, wireless communications, PCIe expansion, and general FPGA prototyping applications. Based on the Spartan-6 LX150T FPGA with its on-chip 3.125-Gbps transceivers, the kit provides an advanced platform for developing low-cost applications that require high-speed connectivity. The board features high performance DDR3 memory, interface, two low pin count FMC expansion connectors and sells for $995.