> > > On Wednesday, March 08, 2017 06:11 AM, Neal Pisenti via ARTIQ wrote: > > * For ARTIQ core device, we would ideally jump straight to using a > > Kasli, but as that isn't likely to be done in the next few months, I was > > planning to use a KC705 as the core. > > The "EEM" DDS/synth Kasli extensions may not necessarily be ready before > Kasli. So I don't see how the KC705 helps - is it because you want more > extensions that one Kasli would support? Supporting this KC705 scheme is > more gateware development and one more configuration that needs to be > documented, packaged and maintained. Maintainance means that we need to > check regularly (preferably automatically) that it keeps working when we > modify ARTIQ and fix any bugs that pop up. It takes work. >
Valid point -- my main thought with this setup is exactly what Tom articulated; the KC705 -> VHDCI is a stopgap until Metlino/Kasli development is completed. And it would allow us to start using digital IO immediately via the PCB_3U_BNC EEM, and we might spin up some in-house boards for multichannel DAC over SPI. We shouldn't need the DDS/synth modules for some time still, since all of our DDS currently exist as "slow peripherals" in the artiq sense. The other short-term alternative I see is adapting either the nist_clock or nist_qc2 builds, and making our own FMC -> ___ breakout. But piggybacking on the EEM architecture seems cleaner and more future-proof. When the Kasli is done, we would either abandon the KC705 for a Kasli as core, or (depending on the cost) plan for 1x Kasli as DRTIO connected to the KC705 SFP. That would certainly put a limit on how many things we can control, but will probably satisfy our needs in the foreseeable future. Even though the uTCA/Metlino setup will be exceedingly nice, for neutral atom experiments it is currently overkill. But whether the upfront cost of a uTCA chassis & associated hardware is worth additional development headache to exclusively use Kasli baords...? Remains to be seen. > * KC705 has 2x FMC headers, which would drive 1x VHDCI carrier card, > > providing 8x IDC for EEMs. We would buy FMC -> VHDCI adapters for this > > interconnect. > > What adapters in particular? http://www.ohwr.org/projects/fmc-vhdci? We > didn't check compatibility of any of those. > When I chatted with Joe, we looked at this one: http://www.ohwr.org/projects/fmc-dio-32chlvdsa/wiki/Wiki @Greg -- are the board files available for this? I looked on the Creotech website but couldn't find it for sale anywhere (which is odd, because I swear I saw it there before, for ~ $500). Even so, I wonder about pricing it out at MacroFab or one of these other small-turn PCB companies before spending $1k on a pair of them. Cheers, Neal
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