BlackIce Mx - composite
It is time to reveal more about the first product to emerge from the BlackEdge project, it is called BlackIce Mx and it inherits it's name from the existing myStorm BlackIce board, the 'Mx' part refers to it's use of Mixed signal Modules (MixMods) support which supercedes the original BlackIce Pmod support. MixMods have backward compatibility with Pmods but introduce new analogue input support. BlackIce Mx composition is based around a carrier and Core module, the carrier in this case is MixMod based and the initial bundled core is the new IceCore (The fastest Ice40 - HX). Both parts of the composite use a standard 100 pin interconnect allowing them to be interchanged with other carriers/cores present and future, this protects investment, adds value and increases flexibility.
Lets take a look at the features of BlackIce Mx (IceCore version):
IceCore specific
* Ice40 HX4K - 4K Luts (8K for Yosy), 80/(128)Kbits BRAM, 2 PLLs, NVCM
* 16Mbit SDRAM 16 bits wide (143Mhz)
* 4Mbit Flash QSPI/SPI (100Mhz)
* 56 General purpose IOs, SPI, Uart, I2C/Can
* Stm32F730 200Mhz, 256KB Ram, 64KB Flash
* Triple 2.5MSPS ADCs (interleaved to 7.2MSPS)
* Dedicated Programming and debug USB 2.0FS
* Uart/Application specific USB2.0FS
* Digital video connector
* SDCard connector
* 4 Statusr LEDs
* 4 User LEDs
* 2 User buttons
Carrier specific
* 3 MixMods (including 6 double Pmods) each supporting 16 GPIO and 5 Analogue inputs.
* RPI header similar to BI II - I2C, Uart, SPI, JTAG and SWIO debugging connector
In comparison to the existing BlackIce II boards here are the main improvements:
* Modular - Different Carriers and easier to integrate into your own projects
* Flash on board 16Mbits for FPGA bit config and/or application storage
* 16Mbit SDRAM replaces 4Mbit SRAM allowing greater OS and framebuffers support etc..
* Built in digital video display connector eliminating need for external video module
* Mixed signal Module support rather than just digital Pmods allow analogue and digital expansion
This thread is for the discussion and progress of BlackIce Mx, please feel free to ask any questions around this, I expect to ship these in early May, any orders for BlackIce II on Tindie will be automatically upgraded at no extra cost with BlackIce Mx as there are no literally no BI II left! If you want in early BlackIce Mx action at BI II pricing add yourself to the waitlist on BII product page on Tindie you will be the first to receive the new kits...