New Product - BlackIce Mx

[Folknology]

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)
* 16Mbit 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.
* JTAG and SWIO debugging connector
* Optional ESP8266 WIFI module

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
* Optional WIFI support via an ESP8266 module available at purchase.

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...

[lawrie]

I have signed up for an early board on Tindie.

I am wondering what can be done on this board that couldn't be done on the BlackIce II.

The implementation of the BBC Micro, Acorn Atom etc. will need to be redone to use the SDRAM and the HDMI connector.

My MuraxArduino system would probably be best converted to use the Murax XIP (eXecute In Place) feature, so that it uses the Flash memory for program execution rather than the SRAM, which the BlackIce version uses.

I would have thought the Commodore Amiga port that runs on the ULX3S board, should work on this, using the HDMI output. And is should be easier to convert other retro computers, game console and arcade implementations that use SDRAM, e.g. those from the Mister project that are written in Verilog.

It does not have enough memory for Linux, but other operating systems such as the Zephyr OS which SaxonSoC uses, should work well on it. Also the Vexriscv Briey SoC should run with very little change as it already uses SDRAM and has VGA output.

[piers]

Interesting choice of mcu, I'm working with it's big brother (733) in my day job - the larger / bga version of the 730 (and 723 / 733) have a built-in USB high-speed phy. Not really in the spirit of the blackice to add that large a mcu though!

Can a ULPI phy be added to the 64 pin version or are some / all of the pins used for other purposes? If they were routed to a mixmod that would be cool ... Or even just routed to the 100pin headers so a future baseboard could add support.

I thought that one of the USB controllers on the 730 was a high-speed core, but this can only be set up as a full-speed controller if the phy is limited to that speed.

Are you using ST's CubeMx to auto-generate code, or crafting something using their low level / HAL drivers?

For the version I'm working on we used CubeMx, but have had to tweak a few of the HAL and ll drivers (in part as I'm adding limited support for compressed video input via high-speed USB, but also to fix a couple of bugs). The generated code we're using uses FreeRTOS. Zephyr looks interesting, but may take a bit more effort to get working.

I'd be interested to know more about what you're planning on the mcu software side.

I hope I'll be able to order one of the first batch on tindie - do you know when you're likely to hit the go button (e.g. How long do I have to convince my wife it's a good opportunity to learn more than I can from my early blackice)?

[Folknology]

Thanks for the comments @piers here are my responses

Interesting choice of mcu, I'm working with it's big brother (733) in my day job - the larger / bga version of the 730 (and 723 / 733) have a built-in USB high-speed phy. Not really in the spirit of the blackice to add that large a mcu though!

Yeah I have designs using the 730 BGA version module that uses the higher speed PHY I have been toying with for 2020..

Can a ULPI phy be added to the 64 pin version or are some / all of the pins used for other purposes? If they were routed to a mixmod that would be cool ... Or even just routed to the 100pin headers so a future baseboard could add support.

Unfortunately those pins are needed for other things..

Are you using ST's CubeMx to auto-generate code, or crafting something using their low level / HAL drivers?

Yes

For the version I'm working on we used CubeMx, but have had to tweak a few of the HAL and ll drivers (in part as I'm adding limited support for compressed video input via high-speed USB, but also to fix a couple of bugs). The generated code we're using uses FreeRTOS. Zephyr looks interesting, but may take a bit more effort to get working.

I would be very interested in what you are doing with this do you have a link to the code, is it opensource? Is the code connected with OpenMV's work?

I hope I'll be able to order one of the first batch on tindie - do you know when you're likely to hit the go button..

If you add yourself to the wait list (see announcement above) you will get one shipped from the first batch, scheduled ship is beginning of May.

[piers]

Thanks @Folknology,
Sadly the USB work I've been doing isn't open source. I hope I can do something worthwhile to help, but am very limited for free time.
I've not seen OpenMV before - it looks interesting. I think they are using the dedicated digital video interface (8-14 bit parallel bus) on the STM32F765 for video input, which is 'simpler' than using USB for video input.
I'll aim to get my name on the waiting list before the end of April - I want to make sure I can complete the purchase before committing ... and make good use of the BlackIce Mx too.

[Folknology]

I've not seen OpenMV before - it looks interesting. I think they are using the dedicated digital video interface (8-14 bit parallel bus) on the STM32F765 for video input, which is 'simpler' than using USB for video input.I'll aim to get my name on the waiting list before the end of April - I want to make sure I can complete the purchase before committing ... and make good use of the BlackIce Mx too.

Ok slight misunderstanding I wasn't thinking of using the USB as video into the STM32 (host) rather making the user usb a video usb device which is also a lot simpler and what happens on the OpenMV..

[piers]

I've added my name to the waiting list too - I look forward to having some fun with this new evolution of the BlackIce project