Altium's NanoBoards are reconfigurable development platforms that give designers high-level access to today's high-capacity, low-cost programmable devices. Working closely with Altium Designer, the NanoBoard allows rapid and interactive implementation and debugging of a digital design, directly on the target FPGA. Development and debugging capabilities include a full embedded toolchain for supported embedded processors and a range of embedded instruments, including a Logic Analyzer.
The NanoBoard NB2DSK01 is the second in the NanoBoard Series, offering a larger range of commonly user peripherals, as well as an up-to-date range of FPGA daughterboards. The NB2DSK01 delivers most of its peripherals on removable boards, allowing designers to develop their own application-specific peripheral boards.
The schematics in this reference design make extensive use of recyclable device sheets and signal harnesses. The board itself features a number of connectors for plug-in daughterboards and peripheral boards, and a touch screen display. The complete NanoBoard NB2DSK01 package included a separate speaker board, mounted in the NB2DSK01 stand. The reference design for the speaker board is available separately. All design elements of the NanoBoard NB2DSK01 are available for use by other designers.
Features of the NanoBoard NB2DSK01 include:
- Works seamlessly and in full synchronization with Altium Designer
- Real-time on-board power monitoring and analysis for the entire system
- Supports range of swappable target FPGA and processor daughter boards from all major chip vendors
- Automatic peripheral and daughter board detection and configuration for plug-and-play platform creation
- Powerful instrumentation reduces or eliminates the need to simulate
- Reprogrammability eliminates the need to build multiple prototypes during development
Main board specifications:
- Integrated color TFT LCD panel (320x240) with touch screen that facilitates dynamic application interaction
- Stereo analog audio system with high-quality on-board amplifiers, mixer, line in/out and stereo speakers
- Variety of standard communication interfaces – RS-232 serial, CAN, PS/2 mini-DIN
- SD card reader – for additional I/O flexibility including the ability to download a variety of files
- Four channel, 8-bit ADC and 10-bit DAC, I2C-compatible
- User definable PDA-style push button switches that function as generic design inputs
- Variety of general purpose switches and LEDs
- Programmable clock, 6 to 200 MHz, available to target FPGA
- Power sensing system allows real-time monitoring of system and device power consumption
- SPI Real-Time Clock with 3V battery back-up
- Onboard memory accessible by NanoTalk Controller – 256K x 32-bit common-bus SRAM (1MB), 16M x 32-bit common-bus SDRAM (64MB), 16M x 16-bit common-bus 3.0V Page Mode Flash memory (32MB), 256K x 32-bit independent SRAM (1MB)
- Dual User Board JTAG headers for direct interaction and development on production board
- Home/Reset button – Home button enables firmware to take control of TFT panel; Reset provides NanoBoard reset functionality
- NanoTalk Controller – manages real time proprietary communication with Altium Designer, the board, and the NanoBoard firmware using a Xilinx® SpartanTM-3 (XC3S1500-4FG676C) controller with JTAG accessible Flash configuration PROM
- Master-Slave connectors for chaining multiple development boards – allowing multiple-FPGA system development
- Board ID memory – 1-Wire® ID system uniquely identifies each daughter board and peripheral board
- Power – Dual 5V DC power daisy-chain connectors with power switch, 5V DC power output connector, power supply test points for all supply levels available on the board, four GND points
- High-speed PC interconnection through USB 2.0 allows faster downloading and debugging
Audio/Video Peripheral Board (PB01) specifications:
- Composite and S-Video output and capture
- 24-bit VGA output
- high-performance I2S stereo audio codec
Mass Storage Peripheral Board (PB02) specifications:
- Compact Flash
- SD card slot
- ATA hard-drive interfaces
USB-IrDA-Ethernet Peripheral Board (PB03) specifications:
- 10/100 Ethernet interface
- USB 2.0 interface
- 4Mbits/sec IrDA
A range of daughterboards are available for the NanoBoard NB2DSK01, check the Altium website for more information.
This download includes the hardware design for the NanoBoard NB2DSK01:
