BeMicro SDK USB connection to host

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* JTAG-USB ... interesting approach! Seems like that would work fine for most applications, but not have great bandwidth. It's a little more complex of a design; with that level of effort, it may just be easier/more fun to get the Ethernet MAC working.

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The JTAG interface is very useful for hardware tests. But yes, its not exactly fast, so if your application requires a high host-to-FPGA bandwidth, its not going to work.

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* Not sure how difficult it would be to write my own Mobile DRAM controller; it's obviously not entirely trivial else they would be able to support a $7500 price tag. Anything is possible; it's just a matter of how much time/energy I'd want to invest into that vice my actual hobby goal.

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Yep, exactly. I haven't yet had the desire to sit down and look at it either.

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* The Terasic Nano also looks like a good option as well; the difference is the external connectivity. The BeMicro has a built-in Ethernet MAC, but the Nano has easily accessible GPIO headers. Sparkfun has both USB (FTDI chipset) and Ethernet (MAC or PHY chips) boards for about $35 each. With the Nano's easily accessible IO, it would be super easy to connect out on a link independent from the JTAG port.

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The 100-mil headers on the DE0-nano do make it a lot easier to interface to other boards. There is a breakout board for the 80-pin edge connector on the BeMicro and BeMicro-SDK, and a few peripheral boards from Hitex; I recall one with CAN and Ethernet. However, I think the DE0-nano and Sparkfun boards would be a good option.

Before you buy the boards, add up the total cost, and compare it to the price of the Terasic DE2 boards. They're a little more expensive, but they have a few more communications options. They do have a USB controller on them, so you could create a better host-to-PC interface than the JTAG interface.

Cheers,

Dave