4 ms·
On a whole different level, if you are merely interested in FPGAs in your computer then the PicoEVB neatly goes in the same M.2 slot as wifi cards do and commun
by chx 8y ago
On a whole different level, if you are merely interested in FPGAs in your computer then the PicoEVB neatly goes in the same M.2 slot as wifi cards do and communicates over PCIe, even if just PCIe Gen 2 x1. As far as I am aware this is, by far, the cheapest way to get an FPGA on the PCIe bus.
- convery 8y agoCool, will check it out. Thanks for sharing.
- kristianp 8y agoDon't new laptops only have one of those, for their hard drives?
- agumonkey 8y agoIt's confusing me. wifi cards don't need m2 slot, I thought it was a standard made for SSDs. Usually wifi cards use basic mini pcie sockets, even on old (2006>) 12" laptops you can find 2, albeit sometimes only one socket is installed (the other is empty space with pins there, some people even soldered one manually)
- loa-in-backup 8y agoDirectly from Wikipedia: Buses exposed through the M.2 connector are PCI Express 3.0, Serial ATA (SATA) 3.0 and USB 3.0, which is backward compatible with USB 2.0. As a result, M.2 modules can integrate multiple functions, including the following device classes: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, satellite navigation, near field communication (NFC), digital radio, Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig), wireless WAN (WWAN), and solid-state drives (SSDs).
- chx 8y agoM.2 slots come with different keys for different purposes. key B is used for WWAN and mostly SATA SSDs (although some slower NVMe drives ship with key B+M , the plus sign means it works in both slots). key M is used for x4 NVMe SSDs. And key E is used for wifi. And this card here.
- rjsw 8y agoSome laptops have two.
- chx 8y agoMost laptops have an m.2 key E slot for the wifi slot but it's rarely mentioned because noone ships a laptop without wifi and they don't want to confuse people. Yes, most laptops only have a single M.2 key M slot but that's not this card is after.
- dTal 8y agoThe Lenovo Thinkpad T480 has an M.2 slot and a normal SATA bay. If you order with an NVMe SSD, it goes in a caddy with an adapter in the SATA bay. The M.2 slot is optionally used for WAN or a small secondary SSD. However is is only 42 mm long and PCIe only, so third party SSDs are difficult to find. I only know all this because I just bought one, and have been hunting for something useful to put in that slot...
- chx 8y agoSigh. There is no such thing as an "M.2 slot". There is always a key and a size. The T480 has three M.2 slots: 1. Optional M.2 key M 2280 in the main bay via an adapter. 2. M.2 key B 2242, the Lite On T11 works there for an SSD. It's the only consumer M>2 key B+M 2242 PCIe SSD. This generation doesn't support SATA disks in this slot, the T470 did. 3. M.2 key E 2230 as practically all laptops do since Broadwell for wifi.
- dTal 8y agoBugger. So the FPGA card won't work then. Thanks for explaining. It's all very confusing and frustrating. So the chances of me finding anything useful to put in that slot are roughly nil, then? I can see no physical or technical reason why my slot should not support this card, except that the card only supports two out of the three possible PCIe-carrying configurations, and I was unlucky. Seems like a poorly designed "standard".
- chx 8y agoOf course it will work! That's the point: remove the wifi card and use a USB dongle instead. Practically every laptop featuring a Broadwell or later CPU will work.
- dTal 8y agoI meant in my spare, useless 'key B' slot, which will still be spare and useless if I take the wifi card out. It especially rankles because they devoted two whole PCIe lanes to that damn slot, which would be better put to use unbottlenecking my highly expensive Samsung P981 NVMe drive. The T480s does not suffer this problem.
- ThrowawayR2 8y agoThere's no onboard RAM on the PicoEVB, other than whatever the FPGA itself provides. That makes it less interesting.
- rhs-research 8y agoAgreed. M-key version coming soon with onboard RAM and 4x PCIe: https://github.com/RHSResearchLLC/uEVB https://github.com/RHSResearchLLC/uEVB
- MisterTea 8y agoFor low cost desktop PCIe with memory and I/O there are these two offerings: https://numato.com/product/galatea-pci-express-spartan-6-fpga-development-board https://numato.com/product/galatea-pci-express-spartan-6-fpg... The galatea from numato is pretty affordable and has 2Gb (256MB) of onboard RAM and comes with a dual ethernet and pmod breakout board from Amazon for $300 USD. http://www.latticestore.com/products/tabid/417/categoryid/59/productid/22434/default.aspx http://www.latticestore.com/products/tabid/417/categoryid/59... The lattice ECP5 PCIe board comes with I think 128MB DDR3 and dual gigabit ethernet. And for boards without memory but lots of I/O there is Mesa Electronics: http://www.mesanet.com/ http://www.mesanet.com/ CNC oriented but you can do whatever you want with the FPGA.
- phendrenad2 8y agoBeware trying to use these on desktops with a PCIe adapter though, the adapters don't seem to break out all the correct signals, so you get USB, or PCIe, but not both.
- chx 8y agoNot so -- the for-wifi adapters (ie those with a m.2 key E) always present a single PCIe otherwise no Intel wifi card would work.
- phendrenad2 8y agoDo those also expose the USB lines on the NGFF port? I've found the PCIe-to-NGFF adapters to be PCIe-only. And I believe USB lines are required for the onboard USB JTAG to work. Am I wrong?
- dTal 8y agoThank you! I was looking for something cool to put in my spare M.2 slot. It's only 2242 so useful SSDs are a bit thin on the ground.