Xyloni

Xyloni FPGA Board

Rayslogic Home Propeller II Propeller I TinyFPGA To P2Eval TinyFPGA 4-bit CPU ULX3S FPGA Board

The Efinix Xyloni is going to be my third board in latest attempt to learn FPGA
- See below for implementation of the Parallax Propeller (P1V).
- See below for working Blinking LED project files
- In contrast to TinyFPGA and ULX3S, this seems to be a relatively new board
- This one was well stocked (>500 available) when I ordered from Digikey (It's hard to find there unless you actually search for "Xyloni")
  - Low cost at $35, although, like TinyFPGA, it's pretty bare bones
- Efinix seems to be a relatively new player in the FPGA market
The most interesting thing about Efinix is that you get full use of their Efinity IDE with purchase of any dev board, including this $35 one
- This gives access to MIPI and DDR3 interfaces without having to spend a fortune for the software
- There doesn't seem to be a SERDES though for direct HDMI output. However, they have an example board with LVDS to HDMI converter chip.
  - Of course, the ULX3S shows how to generate HDMI signals from LVDS just using series capacitors
  - Would this trick work on that code? Don't think so. I think LVDS for displays is in some 7:1 format, but not 100% sure.
  - But, probably the ULX3S way would work.
Xyloni is based on the Trion-T8 FPGA
- As you can guess, it has almost 8k of Logic Elements (not quite though, only 7,384)
- 123 kb of embedded RAM
- 6 LVDS TX and RX channels
- No DDR3 or MIPI on T8, but T20 can have both
  - Unfortunately, DDR3 and MIPI are only both in the 0.65 mm pitch BGA, probably outside of my skill set to manufacture
The also relatively new FireAnt board is another option, also based on Trion-T8
- Also mentioned on the Efinix website
- It's possible I should have started with this instead of TinyFPGA...
Note: Be sure to save the box as that has the serial number on it that you need to get the Efinity software
Creating a LED Blinking starting project
- Here is my first working Xyloni project (download files here)
- Here are the steps I took to get it going:
  - Install Efinity (save box!)
  - Use Zadig software to replace USB Driver as per instructions.
  - Creating an LED Toggling design
  - Download examples from here: https://github.com/Efinix-Inc/xyloni
  - Copy Xyloni.v from HelloWorld/RTL folder to use as starting point.
  - Create a new folder for the project (LedToggle1) and copy Xyloni.v there and rename LedToggle1.v
  - Open xyloni.xml with Efinity in the HellowWorld/Effinity folder
  - Open the "Interface Designer" (using icon in toolbar)
  - Click on "Export Design" from the toolbar and save as .isf file
  - Create a New Project in Efinity (named LedToggle1.xml).
  - Add the Verilog template (LedToggle1.v) to "Design"
  - Open Interface Designer and import that .isf file created earlier
  - Then, click on Genereate Efinity Constraints File and save LedToggle1.sdc in LedToggle1 folder
  - Add this file to project "Constraint".
  - Add some LED toggling code
  - Comment out unused outputs
  - Be sure to save LedToggle1.v after editing, seems Efinity doesn't automatically save edited files
  - Start automated synthesis (click left button in "dashboard" area).
  - Open programming tool (If get Error: Cannot find USB backend, follow instructions to replace USB drivers https://github.com/Efinix-Inc/xyloni/blob/master/docs/xyloni-github-drivers.md)
  - Select LedToggle1.bit as bitstream file
  - Click play button to program over JTAG
Parallax Propeller P1V runs on Xyloni!
- This is a minimal version of P1 though with 2 cogs, 1 kB RAM, 1 kB ROM, no video generator, and no counters. There's no room for more memory, but there is room for more logic.
- Download the design files here.
- It currenly needs a Prop Plug for programming, click photo for how, VSS on J1-pin#3.