Simple PCIe FMC carrier 7 (SPEC7)
Project description
The FMC PCIe Carrier called SPEC7 is an FMC carrier that can hold one
FMC card and an SFP connector.*
This board is optimised for low jitter and cost and is usable with most
of the FMC cards designed within the OHR project (e.g. ADC cards, Fine
Delay).
The design is done in a collaboration between
NIKHEF (NL) and CERN as both need a card
with a similar functionality.
The SPEC7 is the follow-up of the
SPEC of which the design
started in 2010 and for which certain components are obsolete.
Boards with a very similar architecture are available for the VME bus
(SVEC - Simple VME FMC Carrier
(SVEC)) and for the PXI
Express bus (SPEXI - Simple PXI express FMC Carrier Board
(SPEXI)).
Other FMC projects and the FMC standard are described in FMC
Projects.
The SPEC7 will be a follow-up of the SPEC
board (shown)*
Main Features
- 2-lane PCIe Gen2
- Same 1 GByte/s total speed as 4-lane PCIe Gen1 on SPEC. Bridge integrated in FPGA
- Xilinx Zynq FPGA with Dual-Core ARM processor
integrated
-
XC7Z030-1FBG676C
(-1= slowest, commercial temp range, fast enough for most
applications)
- 4 GTX receivers (2 used for PCIe, 1 for SFP, 1 for FMC - same as on SPEC)
- Possibility to mount Z035: XC7Z035-1FBG676C or XC7Z045-1FBG676C
- 8 GTX receivers (2 used for PCIe, 1 for SFP, 5 for FMC)
- FBG676 6.6 Gb/s (-1 speedgrade), FFG676 10.3125 Gb/s (-2 speedgrade) 12.5 Gb/s (-3 speedgrade) GTX transceivers (DS191, Table 91)
-
XC7Z030-1FBG676C
(-1= slowest, commercial temp range, fast enough for most
applications)
- FMC slot with high pin count (HPC) connector
- Under discussion. Possibly only GTX lines connected and Vadj fixed at 2.5V (23/10/18)
- Vadj
programmable at 1.8V and2.5V.- *1.8V not possible due to LVDS level restrictions on the 7-series HR-IO banks, as can be read on page 91 of the manual*
- 2.5V can only be used with a LPC FMC mezzanine: only the LPC pins (LA bank) are 2.5V tolerant.
- Fully populated LA bank
- All 34 differential pairs connected, 1 GTP transceiver with clock, 2 clock pairs, JTAG, I2C (as on SPEC)
- Limited, partial connectivity of HPC part, 1.8V tolerant only
- xx signals on HA bank
- HA bank only 1.8V tolerant (Vadj set to 1.8V)
- only when Xilinx Z035 or Z045 is mounted, the DP1_M2C/C2M and DP2_M2C/2CM are connected to two GTX transceivers
- Clocking resources
- 1x Fixed frequency oscillator for Application processor unit (APU) (frequency?)
- 1x 10-280 MHz VCXO controlled by I2C and a DAC with SPI
interface. Starts up at 100 MHz (Silicon Labs
Si571***Si570 (23/10/18)***, freely usable) - 1x 125 MHz TCXO controlled by a DAC with SPI interface (used by White Rabbit PTP core) (Crystek CVPD-922 model)
- 1x 124.992 MHz VCXO controlled by a DAC with SPI interface (used by White Rabbit PTP core) (Crystek CVPD-922 model)
- On board memory
- 1x 8 Gbit (1 GByte) DDR3 IC connected to the Memory Interface
(main use for the APU)
- a 4 GByte SO-DIMM module cannot be used: has 64-bit interface, while the FGPA can only handle 32-bits and1 GByte max)
- 1x 8 Gbit (1 GByte) DDR3 IC connected to the programmable logic
- for bandwidth reasons
- possibly a second 8 Gbit DDR3 IC to prevent the DDR3 problem of the latency and turnaround from READ to WRITE – two banks solve the problem.
- 1x SPI xx Mbit flash PROM for multiboot FPGA powerup configuration, storage of the FPGA firmware
- 64K (8K x 8-bit) I2C Serial EEPROM (24AA64T-I/MC) for storing serial number, calibration parameters and other critical data such as the MAC address of the card
- 64 MB static memory (needed for booting?)
- MicroSD slot for flash memory for storing programs
- 1x 8 Gbit (1 GByte) DDR3 IC connected to the Memory Interface
(main use for the APU)
- Miscellaneous
- Thermometer and semi-unique ID provided by the FPGA)
- Front panel containing
- 1x Small Formfactor Pluggable+ (SFP+) cage for fibre-optic transceiver (WhiteRabbit support). 1.25, and 2.5 Gbps
- Programmable Red and Green LEDs
- FMC front panel
- Internal connectors
- 1x JTAG header for Xilinx programming during debugging
- 1x USB-C connector
- Can serve two UARTs over the same single mini-USB connector
with CP2105 - Dual UART bridge IC
- One to UART interface of the ARM, one to user logic (e.g., PTP core)
- Can serve two UARTs over the same single mini-USB connector
with CP2105 - Dual UART bridge IC
- 1x USB-C connector connected to USB port of the ARM
- Samtec Bulls-Eye connector (22 signals on the
PCB, 6 cm2 land pattern,
user mountable connector)
- For PPS in/out, 10MHz in, tx-abscal, refclock. 5 signals to be transferred in a differential way
- ESD protection on all signals
- Ethernet RJ45 connector + magnetics and PHY (interface to ARM GigE)
- 1x connector for optional cooling fan
- FPGA configuration. The FPGA can optionally be programmed from:
- JTAG header
- SPI xx Mbit FLASH PROM
- User FPGA logic: via PCIe or ARM (i.e. using Internal Configuration Access Port: ICAPE2)
- Stand-alone features
- External 12V power supply connector
- USB-C connector
- Ethernet
- 4x LEDs
- 2x buttons
- 1 connected to reset controller
- 1 general purpose
- Power consumption: 5-12 Watt, depending on application
- Optimised for cost
- 8-layer PCB
- Optional cooling fan for the mezzanine
Project information
- Official production documentation
- Design Specification
- Specification gathering discussion - a list of wish items ...
- Feature Alternatives - ... boiling down to a few alternatives ...
- Design specification - ... to a precise specification that allows the design to start. A cleaned-up version can be found on this very page at Main Features.
- Component Selection - ... list of selected components.
- Users
- Work partially funded by the EU EMPIR WRITE project
- Frequently Asked Questions
Contacts
Commercial producers
- Once designed and debugged, the board will be commercially available.
General questions about project
- Erik van der Bij - CERN
- Peter Jansweijer, Pascal Bos, Guido Visser - NIKHEF
Status
Date | Event |
10-01-2018 | Start working on project. Collecting main specifications. |
12-01-2018 | Main specifications collected. Discussion points documented. |
29-01-2018 | Specifications taking shape: Specification gathering discussion - a list of wish items & Feature Alternatives - boiling down to a few alternatives |
07-03-2018 | Specification gathering discussion and Feature Alternatives stabelised. |
11-05-2018 | Specification reviewed by Sundance. |
18-05-2018 | Feature Alternatives clarified at 2-day visit from NIKHEF and Tsinghua University at CERN to result in the Design specification. |
28-05-2018 |
Design specification reviewed and used in Main Features. NIKHEF will start designing in June. First prototypes expected by December 2018. |
10-07-2018 | NIKHEF will first design a test board with only XC7Z035 and oscillators (no DDR, no DC/DC) to measure lowest phase noise possible. |
25-07-2018 | Planning: Dec-18: schematics ready for review. Feb-19: schematics ready, layout start (4 weeks). Production (8 weeks): Prototype available by end April 2019. |
17-09-2018 | Added component selection list. |
30-11-2018 | Zynq Phase Noise Test Board received. |
14-12-2018 | First draft of schematics made. Not yet ready for review. |
30-01-2019 | Planned to have schematics ready for review on 15-Feb-19. Layout should start beginning of March. |
30 January 2019