Connecting Terasic DE3 and TR4 dev boards

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

 There are features on the Terasic DE3 and TR4 dev boards that attracts me to use both of them for the same project. What is the best method that people have found to connect these two together for the highest bit rate? I'll be sampling many inputs many times and crunching many numbers on the DE3 and want to pass it on to the TR4, so i can abuse the use of it's PCIe adaptors. So i'm looking for a link between these two with the highest bit rate possible.   Many thanks in advance. Rob

[Altera_Forum]

Hi Rob, 

  --- Quote Start ---   There are features on the Terasic DE3 and TR4 dev boards that attracts me to use both of them for the same project. What is the best method that people have found to connect these two together for the highest bit rate? I'll be sampling many inputs many times and crunching many numbers on the DE3 and want to pass it on to the TR4, so i can abuse the use of it's PCIe adaptors. So i'm looking for a link between these two with the highest bit rate possible.   --- Quote End ---    The DE3 does not have high-speed transceivers, so there is no way to 'abuse' those to connect the two boards.  Your best-bet might be to connect the two boards via cables on the GPIO connectors. Keep in mind, that the cables have power on them, so you'll want to cut the power wires in any cables before plugging the two boards together, so that the power supplies on either board are not shorted together.  Cheers, Dave

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  Hi Rob,   The DE3 does not have high-speed transceivers, so there is no way to 'abuse' those to connect the two boards.  Your best-bet might be to connect the two boards via cables on the GPIO connectors. Keep in mind, that the cables have power on them, so you'll want to cut the power wires in any cables before plugging the two boards together, so that the power supplies on either board are not shorted together.  Cheers, Dave  --- Quote End ---    Hi Dave,  Thanks for your thoughts.  Are you meaning the expansion headers or the HSTC's and HSMC's? Any ideas on the cable solution? I was thinking about a cable solution but i don't really want to deal with cutting the power lines on an expensive cable, just in case i get it wrong.   Rob

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---   Are you meaning the expansion headers or the HSTC's and HSMC's? Any ideas on the cable solution? I was thinking about a cable solution but i don't really want to deal with cutting the power lines on an expensive cable, just in case i get it wrong.   --- Quote End ---    I was thinking of the 100-mil expansion headers. I think you can plug an IDE hard-drive cable into them. I don't think they are that expensive, so you can afford to get it wrong on one cable without losing too much money :)  The HSMC cables from Samtec are $60 to $80 each depending on length.   An IDE cable is 'free' if you can find an old dead desktop that no one cares about ...  Cheers, Dave