After years designing products for other companies, I’ve finally designed something for my own company.
If you have a ZedBoard and you want to experiment with MGTs, now you can with my two new SERDES low-pin-count FMCs. Both boards use the DS32EL0421/DS32EL0124 serializer/deserializer devices from Texas Instruments to provide two external multi-gigabit transceivers from any standard FMC carrier regardless of whether the FPGA has internal MGTs or not. The external MGTs can transmit and receive data up to 2.5Gbps with DC-balance encoding (8b/10b) or up to 3.125Gbps without DC-balance encoding.
The first FMC is designed to accept SFP modules for Gigabit Ethernet and optical applications. The second FMC is designed with SATA connectors to provide a convenient way to connect to the MGTs in custom applications, or for connection to SATA HDDs.
I’ll have the first prototypes in a couple of weeks and I’ll be sure to post photos when they arrive. I’m going to provide the schematics for download on the product page, and I’ll provide all the support code and example designs for download on Github.
If you’re interested in purchasing the SERDES FMCs or you want to know more, please contact me.
There’ll be more to come…
Since I started my consulting business, my goal has always been to eventually make the transition to a product based business. Don’t get me wrong, I love consulting work and I wont give that up - but I’ve got my own ideas and I think I can contribute to FPGA technology in my own unique way. I want to keep doing cool things with FPGAs, do it openly and in a way that promotes learning and stimulates interest. That’s my line in the sand.