[time-nuts] Controlling FEI 5680A

Chris Albertson albertson.chris at gmail.com
Mon Jan 16 18:48:14 UTC 2012


On Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 2:44 AM, Attila Kinali <attila at kinali.ch> wrote:

> But yes, you are right. An FPGA is probably not the right thing. Not because
> it is more difficult, but rather because there are less tools and less
> documentation available. Hence making it more difficult for the hobbyist
> to handle FPGAs than uCs.

This is beginning to change.  I think I'm going to try learning.  The
numbers are just to good, 250,000 logic gates that run at 100Mhz all
on an easy to interface PCB with software for $50.

And the best part is you can re-program it up after to build
something.  So you only need to buy one FPGA board.  They get
re-programmed on every power cycle. and (2) not waiting to order
parts, you can try an idea right away.

The Up is easier to use but always you end up with a bunch of other
ICs in the design.  the FPGA should let you do most of hat those ICs
do and whatever the uP can do.

For $50 I'll learn something, even if it is "These things are not as
useful as I thought."

And I agre with you about the CPU cores.   Just use them.  My guess is
that most FPGA  applications have a uP core inside.

Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California




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