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Help and advice to design and layout mother board with VIA Spartin 3 CPU

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epotential

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Hi. I'm going to call it a Spartin engine. I have an opportinity to design schematic and PCB layout for a dedicated motherboard using the VIA processor and some Xilinx Spartin 3 FPGAs.
I have to demonstrate that I can do this, but have never designed a 1.2 Ghz board before.
Anyone one that is famular with this task can call me at 281-379-1905 or e-mail at:
electronicpotential@houston.rr.com
It is a little difficult to go from a 200 page spec on the VIA Eden to a schematic, to say nothong yet of the Xilinx stuff.
Looking for insight from someone having this experience.
Thanks, Ray
 
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Just because you have the ooprtunity doesn't mean you should jump in with no support system. Look at it practical terms. If you take the bait and fail you'll be in pretty tough shape. If you admit your limitations then you'll either get some help or the project will go away.

BTW is 1.2 MHz a typographical error. That speed has not been a challenge since the early 1960's. Perhaps you meant 1.2GHz.
 
Yes, 1.2 Ghz ! My first mistake !
If I don't do this now, on good opportunity, I'll proubably never do it. I have extinsive experience in schematic capture and PCB layout. I think I can "tune" the diff-pair impedance properties ok. I want to learn the details of the VIA Eden with chip set, flash memory, JTAG and SRAM and Xilinx FPGAs. Have some support and can almost picture it in my mind. Still in concept and component selection phase. A lot depends on developing this project. The client has a FPGA code writer on staff and other simular projects and test boards comming up. Could be a good long term contract. Of course, they want this first one completed too quickly.
Ray
 
Perhaps you should read about transmission lines, and build your circuit as small as possible. Having said that I've never build a complex board working at that frqeuncy before. I've made a simple 2GHz oscillator on a 10mm square piece of board but that's it.

Anyway I think PC motherboards don't even work at frequencies that high. 400MHz is more typical and it's multiplied up by the CPU.
 
epotential said:
Yes, 1.2 Ghz ! My first mistake !
If I don't do this now, on good opportunity, I'll proubably never do it. I have extinsive experience in schematic capture and PCB layout. I think I can "tune" the diff-pair impedance properties ok. I want to learn the details of the VIA Eden with chip set, flash memory, JTAG and SRAM and Xilinx FPGAs. Have some support and can almost picture it in my mind. Still in concept and component selection phase. A lot depends on developing this project. The client has a FPGA code writer on staff and other simular projects and test boards comming up. Could be a good long term contract. Of course, they want this first one completed too quickly.
Ray
Your entusiasm is commedable, but I think you're in over your head. You mention long term contract which leads me to believe you are a consultant or are working for a contract services company. If you take this responsability and it goes south, you take a huge rasher of gooey brown stuff, which as we all know, flows downhill.

The other more sinister possibility is that your management has every intention of throwing you to the wolves, whilst keeping the generous fees.

You might be just good enough, just bold enough and just arrogant enough to pull it off with minimal damage to your hide. If you decide to do this, for God's sake, pay attention to the players and the politics. This is as important or maybe even more important than the technical details. The one thing you have going for you is that no other takers are on the scene. Last words: do not under any circumstances allow yourself to be blindsided. This means figure out who is watching your back while you are otherwise occupied. In law enforcement it's called having a rabbi.
 
I'm a contractor doing occasional designs directly for a small variety of companys from my home office. This pays well, but I'm not busy enough, nor do I know what's comming next. This project is through a consulting firm for one of thier clients.The motherboard is the first of five boards in the assembly and I'm told that they are working other electronic projects, but one step at a time. One pin at a time! They are calling for 1.2 Ghz, but that's an over-kill. How fast can the processor toggle the FPGA? Don't know yet, but intend to help them determine what they really need and what is more reasonably practical. There first proto was a 33 Mhz system, but suddenly they want 1.2 Ghz? No make no sense. I wonder what happened to thier initial schematic design and PCB lay-out connection. Looks like thier willing to deal with me if I can give them a reasonable solution. I want this deal and want the experience of doing it. I can handle the lay-out, transmission lines, etc., but the schematic is what is bothering me. No one is trying to dupe me, and your correct in thinking that there are no other takers, where-in lyes the opportunity. If I can pull it off and the consulting firm gets the deal it's a win-win-win situation. Have 35 years experience in electronics. First repair, then test equiment design, but this is a new venture for me.
Thanks for the replies.
Ray
 
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Then go for it, just remember to watch your back and keep the number of active clients >= 2.
 
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