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The nanoFIP test board is used to test the functionality of the nanoFIP design. Apart from the nanoFIP chip, the FielDrive and the FieldTR it houses another Actel FPGA that can access nanoFIP in stand-alone or in memory mode. This FPGA can also communicate through a RS232 port with a windows PC running the NFTC software. The components on the board are placed in such a way that with a focused beam, radiation tests can be performed to the nanoFIP, FielDrive and FieldTR, leaving the rest if the components in a radiation-safe zone. The card has been designed by the company HLP.

We have designed an FPGA Mezzanine card (standard FMC/Vita 57) for high-channel-count electrophysiology, with 128 channels (potentially up to 512), based upon Intan Tech's RHA2132 (2 uV rms input-referred noise), sampled at 25kHz 18bit by AD7982. We are basing our design on the reference design provided by Reid Harrison of Intan Tech for their 16-channel evaluation board. The expected cost of the device should be under 5000$.

In order to have an integrated solution we intend to have as default carrier the Opal Kelly Shuttle LX1, an inexpensive USB FMC carrier with an excellent USB controller. The integrated solution will be completed with software on the PC side to grab to disk continuously and/or display in some fashion all 128 channels.

Our status: We have an alpha card. It has passed most tests---we can grab from any channel at 1MS/s. We have an alpha microcode: it grabs from any channel and stores on the PC.

Our current team: Marcelo Magnasco (Rockefeller University, New York), design. Andres Cicuttin (ICTP, Trieste), schematics + fpga Maria Liz Crespo (ICTP, Trieste), fpga Sanjee Abeytunge (MSKCC, New York) layout Nicholas Joseph (RU) Macintosh drivers