Introduction
The MINI-S7 board is a complete, ready-to-use digital circuit development platform based on the latest Spartan7 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) from Xilinx. With its high-capacity FPGA (Xilinx part number XC7S15FTGB196-1), low overall cost, and collection of USB, VGA, and other ports, the MINI-S7 can host designs ranging from introductory combinational circuits to complex sequential circuits like embedded processors and controllers. It includes enough switches, LEDs and other I/O devices to allow a large number designs to be completed without the need for any additional hardware, and enough uncommitted FPGA I/O pins to allow designs to be expanded using Pmods or other custom boards and circuits.
The MINI-S7 board has on board USB JTAG which support Vivado & vitis.
Note: on request this board can be available with XC7S25FTGB196-1 OR XC7S50FTGB196-1
Applications
- Product Prototype Development
- Development and testing of custom embedded processors
- Signal Processing
- Communication devices development
- Educational tool for Schools and Universities
Software–The first Vivado Design Suite Exclusive: (Recommended Vivado 19.2)
The MINI-S7 works with Xilinx’s new high-performance Vivado ® Design Suite. Vivado includes many new tools and design flows that facilitate and enhance the latest design methods. It runs faster, allows better use of FPGA resources, and allows designers to focus their time evaluating design alternatives. The System Edition includes an on-chip logic analyzer, high-level synthesis tool, and other cutting-edge tools, and the free “WebPACK” version allows MINI-S7 designs to be created at no additional cost. No need to purchase Vivado license
Features
The Spartan-7 FPGA is optimized for high performance logic, and offers more capacity, higher performance, and more resources than earlier designs. Spartan-7 XC7S15FTGB196-1 features include:
- 12,800 logic cells in 5000 slices (each slice contains four 6-input LUTs and 8 flip-flops);
- 360 Kbits of fast block RAM;
- Two clock management tiles, each with a phase-locked loop (PLL);
- 20 DSP slices;
- Internal clock speeds exceeding 450MHz;
The MINI-S7 also offers an improved collection of ports and peripherals, including:
- 4 user switches
- 8 user LEDs
- 4 user pushbuttons
- 100MHz clock
- Two Pmod ports
- RGB LED
- USB-UART Bridge
- 56 User IO (3.3V)
- Serial Flash
- USB-JTAG port for FPGA programming and communication (support Vivado ) XC7S15FTGB196-1
BOARD POWERING
The MINI-S7 uses +5V power supply to function properly. By default the board is configured to use +5V supply from USB. So an external +5V power is not required unless USB port is unable to supply enough current. In most cases USB ports are capable of providing enough current for the module. Current requirement for this board largely depends on your application. Please consult FPGA data sheet for more details on power requirements. If for any reason, an external 5V power supply needs to be used for the module, the Power select jumper should be configured properly as shown below When JP1 jumper is placed towards USB as shown in below image power is used from USB connector & when JP1 jumper is placed towards power connector power is used from external connector
Oscillators/ Clocks
The MINI-S7 board includes a single 100MHz oscillator connected to pin G11 (G11 is a MRCC input on bank 14). The input clock can drive MMCMs or PLLs to generate clocks of various frequencies and with known phase relationships that may be needed throughout a design. Some rules restrict which MMCMs and PLLs may be driven by the 100MHz input clock. For a full description of these rules and of the capabilities of the Spartan-7 clocking resources, refer to the “7 Series FPGAs Clocking Resources User Guide” available from
Xilinx http://www.xilinx.com/support/documentation/user_guides/ug472_7Series_Clocking.pdf.
Xilinx offers the Clocking Wizard IP core to help users generate the different clocks required for a specific design. This wizard properly instantiates the needed MMCMs and PLLs based on the desired frequencies and phase relationships specified by the user. The wizard will then output an easy to use wrapper component around these clocking resources that can be inserted into the user’s design. The Clocking Wizard can be accessed from within IP Catalog, which can be found under the Project Manager section of the Flow Navigator in Vivado.
SPI FLASH
The MINI-S7 board contains a 128Mbit non-volatile serial Flash device, which is attached to the Spartan 7 FPGA using a dedicated quad-mode (x4) SPI bus. The connections and pin assignments between the FPGA and the serial flash device are shown the below figure
MINI-S7 have been loaded with a Flash device from Cypress (part number S25FL128).FPGA configuration files can be written to the Quad SPI Flash, and mode settings are available to cause the FPGA to automatically read a configuration from this device at power on. An FPGA configuration file requires just over one Mbytes of memory, leaving approximately 98% of the flash device available for user data.
USB-UART Bridge (Serial Port)
The MINI-S7 includes an FTDI FT2232HL
http://www.ftdichip.com/Support/Documents/DataSheets/ICs/DS_FT2232H.pdf USB-UART bridge (attached to connector J6) that allows you to use PC applications to communicate with the board using standard Windows COM port commands. Free USB-COM port drivers, available from www.ftdichip.com under the “Virtual Com Port” or VCP heading, convert USB packets to UART/serial port data. Serial port data is exchanged with the FPGA using a two-wire serial port (TXD/RXD). After the drivers are installed, I/O commands can be used from the PC directed to the COM port to produce serial data traffic on the M5 and L5 FPGA pins.
The FT2232HL is also used as the controller for the USB-JTAG circuitry, but the USB-UART and USB-JTAG functions behave entirely independent of one another. Programmers interested in using the UART functionality of the FT2232 within their design do not need to worry about the JTAG circuitry interfering with the UART data transfers, and vice-versa. The combination of these two features into a single device allows the MINI-S7 to be programmed, communicated with via UART, and powered from a computer attached with a single Micro USB cable. The connections between the FT2232HQ and the Artix-7 are shown in the below figure.
Basic I/O
The MINI-S7 board includes sixteen slide switches, four push buttons, sixteen individual LEDs, and a four-digit seven-segment display, as shown in the below diagram. The pushbuttons and slide switches are connected to the FPGA via series resistors to prevent damage from inadvertent short circuits (a short circuit could occur if an FPGA pin assigned to a pushbutton or slide switch was inadvertently defined as an output). The four pushbuttons are “momentary” switches that normally generate a high output when they are at rest, and a low output only when they are pressed. Slide switches generate constant high or low inputs depending on their position.
GPIO
All IO work on 3.3 voltage level, If you want to interface any 5v logic level devices you need to add buffer for 3.3v to 5V convertor
Pmod Ports
We have a large collection of Pmod (Peripheral Module) accessory boards that can attach to the expansion ports to add ready-made functions such as A/D’s, D/A’s, motor drivers, sensors, displays, and many other functions. These ports can be used as simple expansion ports, since all of the pin-outs correspond to pins on the FPGA.
The Pmod ports are arranged in a 2×6 right-angle, and are 100-mil female connectors that mate with standard 2×6 pin headers. Each 12-pin Pmod ports provides two 3.3V VCC signals (pins 6 and 12), two Ground signals (pins 5 and 11), and eight logic signals. The VCC and Ground pins can deliver up to 1A of current. Pmod data signals are not matched pairs, and they are routed using best-available tracks without impedance control or delay matching. Pin assignments for the Pmod I/O connected to the FPGA are shown in the below table
Warning: Since the Pmod pins are connected to Spartan-7 FPGA pins using a 3.3V logic standard, care should be taken not to drive these pins over 3.4V.
Pmod JA | Pmod JB |
JA1 :C1 | JB1 :A12 |
JA2 :B2 | JB2 :B13 |
JA3 :B3 | JB3 :D13 |
JA4 :A4 | JB4 :E13 |
JA7 :D2 | JB7 :A10 |
JA8 :B1 | JB8 :A13 |
JA9 :A2 | JB9 :C14 |
JA10:A3 | JB10:D14 |