[time-nuts] Controlling FEI 5680A

[Bob Camp]

Hi

Don't forget to toss RAM, Flash, EEPROM, brown out detection, and a clock oscillator on your board. You get all that stuff built in on a sub $5 / 100 Mhz micro, but not on a FPGA. I'm not saying you can't take care of all that on a board, just that you need to plan ahead.

Bob



On Jan 16, 2012, at 1:48 PM, Chris Albertson <albertson.chris at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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