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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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13 years ago

MAX II CPLD Selection for Encoder

Dear all,

I am new to CPLD here.

I want to use a CPLD MAXII (3.3V) EPM240 to realize a 20 key encoder.

Does anyone know if MAXII is recommended to new design?

If EPM240 is enough to realize this function?

Any suggestions on the development kit?

Thank you for any suggestions!

Best

X

2 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    13 years ago

    MAX II CPLDs are still valid for new designs. The new MAX V devices don't have too many advantages, so I would guess both products will be around for a while.

    The MAX II PCI Development Kit would be ok for your development. It has a breakout header (Santa Cruz header) which probably has enough pins for your requirements.

    The kit is around $150, but it comes with an Altera USB-Blaster (which is $300), so its a good deal :)

    One caveat: MAX II Flash is rated for 100 programming cycles - that is not a typo. I have a MAX II PCI kit that stopped working ... I suspect I exceeded programming it by over 100x.

    If you just want to test your HDL code, then you might want to buy a Terasic DE0-nano instead. I typically test on an FPGA development kit, even if I target a MAX II CPLD. So long as the synthesis passes timing, it will work fine in hardware.

    Cheers,

    Dave
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    13 years ago

    Hey Dave,

    Thank you for your quick reply.

    It is helpful.

    Have a nice holiday!

    Best

    Xu