[time-nuts] Divide by five

[EWKehren at aol.com]

We do most our projects with Altera G/A.
The biggest benefit is that if something does not work on first pass  
changing the G/A logic is much faster, less costly than a new board  layout.
Bert Kehren
 
 
In a message dated 11/8/2014 6:17:29 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
kb8tq at n1k.org writes:

Hi

I’ve done a lot of designs with Altera parts. They are  fine parts, but 
they are not magic. On the CPLD parts, be careful of the speed  grade and be 
sure you do a timing analysis on your design before you buy any  hardware. All 
the design tools are schematic entry capable and free on the  web. There’s 
not a big speed bump when you start using them (like say needing  to go 
learn VHDL…). 

Once you get using them, the CPLD's are quite  handy for a wide range of 
projects, way beyond a simple divide by 5. Their  bigger cousins (the FPGA’s) 
aren’t that much more (under $35) and they will do  a LOT, especially in the 
newer series. The Cyclone 2’s had a minimum rated PLL  input of 20(?) MHz. 
The later parts bumped that down to 10 MHz. Much more  TimeNuts compatible. 

Bob

> On Nov 8, 2014, at 5:58 PM, cfo  <xnews5 at luna.dyndns.dk> wrote:
> 
> On Sat, 08 Nov 2014  09:58:36 +0100, Francesco Messineo wrote:
> 
>> 
>>  can anyone suggest a (cheap if possible) programmer and software  for
>> these modern PLD?
>> 
>> Thanks and best  regards Frank  IZ8DWF
> 
> I'd suggest ALTERA parts , but  only because they are the cheapest boards 
> on *bay , XILINX boards are  2 x the Altera price on *Bay.
> 
> An EPM240 CPLD Board $9   (240 cells let you do quite a lot)
> http://tinyurl.com/qcusb69
>  
> There's also an EPM-570 Board , but the price is almost the same as  the 
> below FPGA , and then the FPGA is the thing to get.
>  
> 
> A CycloneII EP2C5T144 FPGA board (With 2 onbard PLL's) $18 -  Super value 
> for the money
> http://tinyurl.com/pd326ct
>  
> An ALTERA Programmer  $6
>  http://tinyurl.com/po2qhq2
> 
> 
> The only caveat is that  they are NOT 5v tolerant , they can do 3v3 or 
> less.
> 
>  
> ALTERA has the free QuartusII WEB Edition , and it works fine under  both 
> Windows & Linux (i'm using Mint17 x64 ... Ubuntu 14.04 based  "under the 
> hood")
> 
> I am a VHDL beginner , and  completed this (free) course s few month back
> 
> Course
>  http://tinyurl.com/per8lm5
> 
> Forum 
>  http://tinyurl.com/pw3b9bv
> 
> 
> I have just did a divide  by 5 with the EP2C5T144 FPGA board , using one 
> of the PLL's. I did  use so few resources, that it reported 0% of the 
4608 
> Cells utilized,  and 1 of 2 PLL's used.
> 
> *********** SNIP *************
>  Fitter Status    Successful - Sat Nov  8 23:11:59 2014
>  Quartus II 64-Bit Version    13.0.1 Build 232 06/12/2013 SP 1 SJ Web  
> Edition
> Revision Name    div5pll
> Top-level  Entity Name    div5pll
> Family    Cyclone  II
> Device    EP2C5T144C8
> Timing Models     Final
> Total logic elements    0 / 4,608 ( 0 % )
>  Total combinational functions    0 / 4,608 ( 0 % )
> Dedicated  logic registers    0 / 4,608 ( 0 % )
> Total registers   0
> Total pins    6 / 89 ( 7 % )
> Total virtual  pins    0
> Total memory bits    0 / 119,808 ( 0 %  )
> Embedded Multiplier 9-bit elements    0 / 26 ( 0 %  )
> Total PLLs    1 / 2 ( 50 % )
> *********** SNIP  *************
> 
> Actually i like Xilinx ISE WebPack better , but  the cheap 
*Bay/Aliexpress 
> boards are ALTERA Boards , so i have both  tools installed on my linux 
> machine.
> 
> 
> If you  don't feel like learning VHDL or Verilog , you can do the layout 
> in  "Schematic". ALTERA QuartusII does have an extensive 74xx lib built 
in  
> the schematic engine.
> 
> See my ansver to assignment 10  , for a QuartusII schematic entry of a 
50M 
> divider. Using use 4 x  HC390 dividers in a divide : 100 / 100 / 100 / 50 
>  configuration.
> http://tinyurl.com/ntdkcst
> 
> 
> Be  sure to get these versions of the tools , as both have upgraded their 
>  tools , and the new tools doesn't support the older (cheaper chips).
>  
> Altera QuartusII  : Version 13.0sp1  (13.1+ doesn't suport  the old 
CPLD's)
> Xilinx ISE      : Version 14.7   (Vivado doesn't support the old stuff)
> 
> 
> I  suggest to try it out , you can do a lot of logic in a 240 Cell CPLD , 
 
> and MUCH more in the FPGA. 
> 
> The 4 x HC390 used 16%  of the EPM240 logic , and it is less than 1% in 
> the FPGA. As seen  below.
> 
> *********** SNIP ***************
> Flow  Status    Successful - Sat Nov  8 23:56:46 2014
> Quartus  II 64-Bit Version    13.0.1 Build 232 06/12/2013 SP 1 SJ Web  
> Edition
> Revision Name    lesson10d
>  Top-level Entity Name    lesson10d
> Family     Cyclone II
> Device    EP2C5T144C8
> Timing Models   Final
> Total logic elements    39 / 4,608 ( < 1 %  )
> Total combinational functions    39 / 4,608 ( < 1 %  )
> Dedicated logic registers    31 / 4,608 ( < 1 %  )
> Total registers    31
> Total pins    3 /  89 ( 3 % )
> Total virtual pins    0
> Total memory  bits    0 / 119,808 ( 0 % )
> Embedded Multiplier 9-bit  elements    0 / 26 ( 0 % )
> Total PLLs    0 / 2 ( 0  % )
> *********** SNIP ***************
> 
> 
> CFO -  Denmark
> 
> -- 
> E-mail:xnews5 at luna.dyndns.dk
>  
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