[hpsdr] New Hermes board

[Ray Anderson]

I'm not going to address the virtues of Altera vs Xilinx or any other FPGA's that may be available. I just want to make the point that any non-BGA package will severely limit the performance of the silicon within the package.

I'm a package signal integrity engineer at Xilinx. We go to great lengths to make sure the package has the best performance possible in terms of PDNs (power distribution networks), SSN and Crosstalk. BGA packages (as well a LGA types) have considerably better performance as compared to non-BGA types.

As mentioned in a previous e-mail in this thread, there are no non-BGA packages available for Xilinx parts in either the current generation of parts (or in the last 5 or 6 generations).

Regards,

Ray Anderson WB6TPU
Senior signal Integrity Staff Engineer
Xilinx Inc.

-----Original Message-----
From: Hpsdr [mailto:hpsdr-bounces at lists.openhpsdr.org] On Behalf Of John Marvin
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2017 2:37 AM
To: hpsdr at lists.openhpsdr.org
Subject: Re: [hpsdr] New Hermes board

***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****

I agree with everything except for the no BGA goal.  I'm not sure you can meet your other goals without it.  Do you have any FPGA's that you are currently considering that I may have missed?

Basically large non-BGA FPGA's are being obsoleted and no longer being introduced in new families. The current Cyclone 3 Hermes FPGA is about the best you can still get that is not obsolete yet.  There is nothing in the Cyclone 4 or Cyclone 5 family that is comparable. There is a newer MAX 10 FPGA in a 144 pin package that might be considered. It's a little larger than the current Hermes FPGA, but has less I/O's.  So unless you are planning for I/O expansion with extra external chips, I don't think you can meet your more I/O's goal.  Xilinx has nothing in a non-BGA package that is worth considering as far as I can tell.

Would you consider a BGA FPGA and an option to get the bare board with just the FPGA attached? That might actually interest more people who want to build from "scratch", since the FPGA was by far the hardest component to install on the existing Hermes board.  An FPGA daughterboard might be considered, but I have trouble seeing that work mechanically.

Unless I'm missing something,  you might have to stick with the current Cyclone 3 FPGA and hope it doesn't get obsoleted in the near future, if you stick with the no BGA goal.

73,
John
AC0ZG


On 5/31/2017 1:42 AM, Kjell Karlsen wrote:
> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>
> Hi All.
>
> Thank you all for the interest and comments about the new Hermes board.
>
> As I informed in my first mail, describing what the plans are, this is
> not a new project. The plan is to improve Hermes in many ways, not
> making a new Angelia or Orion board. We are going to keep all the good
> performance that Hermes already has and add some new features such as
> 2 meter coverage, less power consumption, new 5W PA, new FPGA and some
> more I/O´s.
>
> And we want that Hermes 2M should be possible to build by a Ham with
> some experience and normal tools and equipment for soldering and
> re-soldering. That means that there will not be any ball grid components.
>
> We are still open for new improvements.
>
> I see that many of you are going to be disappointed but if somebody
> wants to start a new OpenHPSDR project, that is fine!
>
> 73, Kjell.
>

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