[time-nuts] Thought experiment on a low cost timing board

David Forbes dforbes at dakotacom.net
Sat Feb 25 19:20:58 EST 2006


At 3:50 PM -0800 2/25/06, John Pettitt wrote:
>I had several goals in mind when I asked the initial question:
>
>1) a low cost high stability ntp stratum 1 clock board - something that
>when added to a sub $100 gps would yield a really stable time source for
>ntp.  To do this it really needs to let the main cpu read the counters
>in a predictable, consistent time which is why I wanted PCI (3v because
>I have soekris boxes).
>
>2) it would also be nic to be able to add a low cost frequency synth to
>the design.
>
>
>John

John,

Having had some experience in this arena, I'd suggest a PLX PCI 
interface chip and an older type of Xilinx FPGA such as the Spartan 
IIE. Both are available in quad flat packages, so you can solder them 
with a regular iron.  They work on 3.3V too.

-- 

--David Forbes, Tucson, AZ
http://www.cathodecorner.com/




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