Lab Setups Archives - MLE Developer Zone

Mini, Midi, Big or Supersize – Motherboard Demo Solution for Proof of Concept (POC)

September 7, 2023FPGA DevTips, Lab SetupsAMD/Xilinx ZCU106, Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS), Hardware, Proof of Concept (POC)

Mini, Midi, Big or Supersize – Motherboard Demo Solution for Proof of Concept (POC) Our Mission: If It Is Packets, We Make It Go Faster! And with packets we mean: Networking using TCP/UDP/IP over 10G/25G/50G/100G Ethernet PCI Express (PCIe), CXL, OpenCAPI Data storage using SATA, SAS, USB, NVMe Video image processing using HDMI, DisplayPort, SDI, FPD-III. Working on a proof of concept (POC) can be challenging, no time, no custom tailored hardware but you need to deliver an appealing demo. The solution seems simple: commercial off the shelf hardware (COTS). However sometimes the outcome is on the other side of the spectrum you are planning to go. As an example: How do you mount a Xilinx ZCU106, which is nearly a double height and full length PCIe card on a Motherboard? Easy, just buy one of the biggest PC enclosures you find commercially available: A custom made front panel for the ZCU106 outputs completes the image – and voilà there is your nice POC demo you don’t have to be afraid to put in front of your customer. *Hint: Maybe bring a sketch of the final size hardware to show the difference. In this case it will be smaller than the ZCU106 itself. Contact Us Reference [1] https://www.thermaltake.com/level-20-xt.html 🌐 www.missinglinkelectronics.com MLE (Missing

Molex Mini-Fit Jr – Know your Power, and Don’t Get Confused – “PCIe” and “Xilinx Not PCIe” Power Connector

November 23, 2022FPGA DevTips, Lab SetupsAMD/Xilinx ZCU102, AMD/Xilinx ZCU106, Kintex, MolexMiniFit, Ultrascale, Virtex, Xilinx, Zynq

Molex Mini-Fit Jr – Know your Power, and Don’t Get Confused – “PCIe” and “Xilinx Not PCIe” Power Connector Table of ContentsMolex Mini-Fit Jr – Know your Power, and Don’t Get Confused – “PCIe” and “Xilinx Not PCIe” Power ConnectorPCI Express Cards Consumption LimitUsing Additional Connectors for Higher PCIe Card Consumption Our Mission: If It Is Packets, We Make It Go Faster – today more on PCIe, this time, Powering PCIe Cards with FPGAs… And with packets we mean: Networking using TCP/UDP/IP over 10G/25G/50G/100G Ethernet; PCI Express (PCIe), CXL, OpenCAPI; data storage using SATA, SAS, USB, NVMe; video image processing using HDMI, DisplayPort, SDI, FPD-III. To move packets you need power, but how much can you draw from an interface? PCI Express Cards Consumption Limit PCIe has been around for a long time, since 2003, and many people know the maximum power draw of 75W per PCIe slot, but is it that simple? The short answer is no, but let’s have a look into the spec. It states that all cards can consume up to 3A on the 3.3 V power rail with the following restrictions applying: x1 cards: 0,5A on 12V, but overall consumption limit is 10W x4 – x16 cards: 2,1A on 12V, but overall consumption limit is 25W But

Stop Wobbling Around – A Salute From The MLE Embedded Lab

January 25, 2022FPGA DevTips, Lab SetupsAMD/Xilinx ZCU102, FPGA-based PCIe Card Mounting, PCIe Carrier, SD Mux

Stop Wobbling Around – A Salute From The MLE Embedded Lab Our Mission: If It Is Packets, We Make It Go Faster – today, how to properly mount those large FPGA-based PCIe Cards … theory and practice! Everyone working with evaluation hardware knows the struggles: On its own it works, but when you assemble an entire setup you have many loosely or weakly connected parts. This easily can damage a part or much worse, you spend an entire day debugging. To overcome this issue, MLE sometimes gets creative and designs additional carriers to securely mount extension cards or additional hardware. As a small example, the following images show a 3D Model of how we securely mount additional Hardware to the Xilinx ZCU102: SD-Mux, which we use to swap SD-Card images PCIe Card Here’s the theory: The stabilizations for PCIe and SD-Mux are 3D printed by our engineers (yes they have some neat toys at home). This helps MLE to have a clean stable lab setup. In this case we tested a SAS 12G storage controller on the Xilinx ZCU102. And the first prototype looks like this: If you want to enhance your Lab as well, we give you a kickstart. You can find our printable 3D Models at thingiverse: PCIe Carrier: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5164348 SDMux