Cost of FPGA development

[CRain4]

Hello ...

So I have just began looking at the FPGA chips looking at an application that uses the Texas instruments high speed ADC that uses the high speed serial communication ...hence why I am here looking at the FPGA's which I really wanted to avoid but it looks like I have no choice if I want to implement a very fast ...G Hz sampling. By no means am I a expert...but I have been around for a few years, so hopefully it counts for something.

What is really putting me off at the moment is the cost... essentially just to try something out and that something might well ( and most likely ) turn out to be a nothingness.  

Just a simple ADC -> memory -> Texas C6000 -> App software....as it is turning out not so simple....

Question ...is there a cost effective approach to this problem..£1000 odd for a FPGA license...1000 odd for TI eval board( but the software is free )

....it all seems to be staking up and that is not even looking at getting somebody to etch some boards....who knows how many blunders that board iteration will go through?

[Rahul_S_Intel1]

Hi ,

Can you try Cyclone V series devices

[CRain4]

Hi RSree

Thanks for the reply.....

I could if it can handle the JESD204B protocol and some lane speeds of xxGbps.......basically storing loads of data to some memory....ultimately/hopefully storing 1Ghz > of raw analogue values

The price looks good...is there a cost on the development software? I seem to remember seeing some prices of $3k ...

[Rahul_S_Intel1]

Hi ,

Can you be in touch with the local distributor for the pricing, because I could not able to comment on the price .

In terms of technical stuff that is JESD204B protocol, the Cyclone V will support and can directly use the IP. Hope the below document will be use for u.

https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/programmable/us/en/pdfs/literature/ug/ug_jesd204b.pdf

Regards,

Rahul S

[CRain4]

Hello Rahul S

Thank you for your reply...the document is helpful

I have had a look at the Quartus light package....can this deal with this type of development??

or is it Quartus Prime package?

I see an evaluation mode of 30 days on the Quartus Prime ... is this a renewable 30 days and does it come with the evaluation IP for the above mentioned protocol?

Kind Regards

Carl

[Rahul_S_Intel1]

For license , I am kindly requesting to check on different thread, I am not expert on that