ARM/Xilinx Laboratory Board

This page is currently just a placeholder for collecting information.

All documentation should be regarded as temporary.

** UNDER CONSTRUCTION **

This system is the second generation developed for teaching microcontroller hardware and programming by the School of Computer Science at the University of Manchester; the previous system is described here. It was designed to be a cheap single-board computer for a teaching laboratory, but, with the inclusion of certain extra devices, be able to support larger projects including significant hardware development.

The system comprises an ARM-based computer enhanced with an FPGA providing user-configurable processing and I/O. Features include:

• ARM9 microcontroller (AT91)
  • Programmable clock controller - up to 240MHz
  • MMU & Caches
  • 160 Kbytes RAM
  • Three serial lines
  • USB host & device ports
  • 64 available parallel I/O signals
  • LCD controller
  • Three counter/timers
  • Interrupt controller
  • Watchdog
  • etc.
• 8Mbytes Flash ROM (in-circuit programmable)
• Character LCD
• LEDs and buttons
• Xilinx Spartan-3 FPGA
  • ~200K user-programmable gates
  • 80 user-available I/O signals
  • 1Mbyte (32-bit wide) local RAM
• Expansion bus
• Single DC supply

• Board Description
• Schematics
• Software
• Komodo

Datasheets

• Atmel AT91SAM9261 microcontroller
• Xilinx XC3S200 FPGA
• ST M29W160DB (2MB Flash ROM)
• ++++

An image of a part-assembled PCB is here.