Gadget Factory

Papilio Pro Hardware Guide Now Available, Papilio Pro Boards Now For Sale At Seeed Studio

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hoppasaurus

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, lend an ear as we’ve got a wonderful announcement:  The Papilio Pro Hardware Guide is now available for your perusal on the site, and the Papilio Pro hardware itself is up for sale, $84.99 at Seeed Studio. All as of today!

This is my favorite part – taking out my bag of tricks, reaching in, and throwing a bunch of links at you!  Get ready.

And last, but certainly not least:

The Papilio Pro is quite a piece of hardware, and quite an upgrade. Here’s the “nutshell version” overview: The Papilio Pro is an Open Source FPGA development board based on the  Xilinx Spartan 6 LX FPGA.  It has 48 I/O lines, dual channel USB, integrated JTAG  programmer, 64Mb SDRAM, and an efficient switching power supply.

As always, feel free to let us know what you think in the comments! Happy hacking.

 

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Response

  1. maddog Avatar
    maddog

    I reviewed the design and I liked most of it. Yes it’s a serious upgrade.
    Can’t buy one anywhere. Anybody know why?
    1) Unfortunately Xilinx indicates the built in DRAM controller is only usable in BGA package which was not used here. That built in controller is what really makes the Spartan6 stand out for me. Doing manual versions of DRAM controller is poor at best. GigBytes per seconds is what I’m talking about!
    I know you didn’t use BGA because its not easily replaced by rookies, but It was a move that would have made a huge difference.
    2) why did you switch back to that pitiful FTDI chip? The drivers are always a pain and not well written. iMHO. The Microchip solution was a much more robust solution and let’s those smart guy add some cool features.
    Keep up the good work. Now back to my papilio250 board.

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