exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

terriblefire wrote: 20 Apr 2020 14:21 I'm freezing all board sales and probably going to ditch all the current designs in favour of Lattice based solutions. This is due to the spike in Xilinx prices. Do not buy any Xilinx chips in anticipation of TF boards coming out because they're probably not going to use them now.

I ordered some Xilinx chips from UTSource, they are supposedly new and very cheap, so it may be an alternative option.

As i've said myself and @chucky tried those out and they generally have broken IOBs.

alenppc wrote: 20 Apr 2020 15:45

terriblefire wrote: 20 Apr 2020 14:21 I'm freezing all board sales and probably going to ditch all the current designs in favour of Lattice based solutions. This is due to the spike in Xilinx prices. Do not buy any Xilinx chips in anticipation of TF boards coming out because they're probably not going to use them now.

I ordered some Xilinx chips from UTSource, they are supposedly new and very cheap, so it may be an alternative option.

My experience with UTSource is very mixed.
Like vast majority of China sources it is lottery.
To be fair it is better than AliExpress.

arkadiusz.makarenko wrote: 20 Apr 2020 16:11

alenppc wrote: 20 Apr 2020 15:45

I ordered some Xilinx chips from UTSource, they are supposedly new and very cheap, so it may be an alternative option.

My experience with UTSource is very mixed.
Like vast majority of China sources it is lottery.
To be fair it is better than AliExpress.

Well, I will check them out and report back. Usually everything I get from them is ok, although normally there is about a 15-20% defective rate. Back when official Xilinx pricing was sensible, it made no sense to buy from them, but now the tables have turned.

terriblefire wrote: 20 Apr 2020 14:21 I'm freezing all board sales and probably going to ditch all the current designs in favour of Lattice based solutions. This is due to the spike in Xilinx prices. Do not buy any Xilinx chips in anticipation of TF boards coming out because they're probably not going to use them now.

Totally understand. however, if the current TF536 rev2 is good to go after the intial test boards prove OK, can this be released/purchased so anyone holding stock of Xilinx chips can use them?

terriblefire wrote: 20 Apr 2020 14:21 I'm freezing all board sales and probably going to ditch all the current designs in favour of Lattice based solutions. This is due to the spike in Xilinx prices. Do not buy any Xilinx chips in anticipation of TF boards coming out because they're probably not going to use them now.

Thanks for the update, saved me some coin, :) was just about to purchase a couple from Element 14 to use on the TF536. Been watching the prices escalate over the last week and was feeling the cost pressure to pre-buy. (they had just hit $52 Aud ea).
Will wait for possibly TF536 Rev?-L.

Hmm, I've ordered 95XL's from eBay and AliExpress, never had any problems yet. Noted you can get 10 of the 95288XL for around $50AUD including shipping.

Are there any 5V tolerant ICE40 FPGA's? Data sheets I've read only show the ispMACH4000 cpld series as the Lattice 5V options.

AEV80 wrote: 21 Apr 2020 02:00 Hmm, I've ordered 95XL's from eBay and AliExpress, never had any problems yet. Noted you can get 10 of the 95288XL for around $50AUD including shipping.

I personally will never use Aliexpress or UTSource for what i do. I have to trust that the components are pristine when developing boards. And i think that Xilinx have taken the micky for long enough. The designs that are open will not be ported but the 1260 is definitely getting the Lattice treatment. At least for one of the CPLDs

Are there any 5V tolerant ICE40 FPGA's? Data sheets I've read only show the ispMACH4000 cpld series as the Lattice 5V options.

I dont need 5V tolerant for 060. Its 3.3V so i just need to buffer/level shift the amiga connectors. Not the biggest issue. It also gets rid of the need for the separate multiplier chip (which pays for the ICE40 itself), it gives options for putting drivers/roms into the SPI rom that will boot the FPGA.

I had a good look into the ICE40 today and like you said it's the obvious choice, cheapest FPGA's available at reputable retailers and very capable, much better than a Xilinx CPLD, just needs level shifting.

After looking into 5V tolerant stuff there's not really anything that's not EOL and fast enough.

AEV80 wrote: 21 Apr 2020 10:05 I had a good look into the ICE40 today and like you said it's the obvious choice, cheapest FPGA's available at reputable retailers and very capable, much better than a Xilinx CPLD, just needs level shifting.

After looking into 5V tolerant stuff there's not really anything that's not EOL and fast enough.

Plus one of my best friends did the Novena ICE40 add on card.