Stratix IV GX dev kit

"The Samtec interfaces are just breakout cables. You just plug them in "

You are right Dave :), I am being lazy here. It just does not seem very straightforward to buy them. I have asked them for a quote already.

The information on the dev boards is sometimes confusing, so here it goes in case it helps someone and someone can help me. The Stratix IV SI kit with 8 SMA channels actually has the 8 channels routed through different paths, to provide insight on the effect of different transmision paths on the SI. So the channels are not matched. That is not very difficult to fix but I think it is annoying.

Here is different option based on the Stratix IV TR4 dev board

http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?language=english&categoryno=138&no=683&partno=4

in the reference manual there are 8 channels routed to HSMC-A and 8 routed to HSMC-E. That, plus the adapter XTC-HSMC (or a similar, custom one that provides the right amount of channels) can do it. But once again something confusing: in the webpage they list only 8 transceivers available.

If any of you has any experience with this board I would appreciate any comments. I will directly ask Terasic about this. Otherwise I hope this is the right choice.

Again thank you all for your help!

Miguel