Alinx ARTIX-7FPGA User manual

ARTIX-7 FPGA
Development Board
AX7201
User Manual

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Version Record
Version
Date
Release By
Description
Rev 1.2
2023-02-23
Rachel Zhou
First Release

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Table of Contents
Version Record .............................................................................................2
Part 1: FPGA Development Board Introduction .......................................... 6
Part 2: AC7200 Core Board Introduction .....................................................9
Part 2.1: FPGA Chip ........................................................................... 10
Part 2.2: Active Differential Crystal .....................................................12
Part 2.3: 200Mhz Active Differential clock ..........................................12
Part 2.4: 148.5Mhz Active Differential Crystal ................................... 13
Part 2.5: DDR3 DRAM ........................................................................15
Part 2.6: QSPI Flash ...........................................................................19
Part 2.7: LED Light on Core Board .................................................... 21
Part 2.8: Reset Button ........................................................................ 22
Part 2.9: JTAG Interface .....................................................................23
Part 2.10: Power Interface on the Core Board .................................. 24
Part 2.11: Board to Board Connectors ............................................... 25
Part 2.12: Power Supply .....................................................................32
Part 2.13: Structure Diagram ..............................................................33
Part 3: Carrier Board ..................................................................................34
Part 3.1: Carrier Board Introduction ................................................... 34
Part 3.2: Gigabit Ethernet Interface ................................................... 35
Part 3.3: SFP Interface ....................................................................... 41
Part 3.4: VGA display interface .......................................................... 43
Part 3.5: USB to Serial Port ................................................................46
Part 3.6: Expansion Header ............................................................... 48
Part 3.7: JTAG Interface .....................................................................49
Part 3.8: Keys ..................................................................................... 50
Part 3.9: LED Light ............................................................................. 51
Part 3.10: Power Supply .....................................................................52

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This ARTIX-7 FPGA development platform (Module: AX7201) adopts the
core board + carrier board mode, which is convenient for users to use the core
board for secondary development.
In the design of carrier Board, we have extended 4 fiber interfaces and 4
Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. It meets user's requirements for high-speed data
transmission and exchange. It is a "Versatile" and “Professional” ARTIX-7
FPGA development platform. It provides the applications for multi-channel
video transmission, multi-channel networks, fiber-optic communication, and
data processing. This product is very suitable for students, engineers and other
groups engaged data communication and video image processing.

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Part 1: FPGA Development Board Introduction
The entire structure of the AX7201 FPGA development board is inherited
from our consistent “core board + carrier board” model. A high-speed
inter-board connector is used between the core board and the carrier board.
The core board is mainly composed of FPGA + 2 DDR3 + QSPI FLASH,
which undertakes the functions of high-speed data processing and storage of
FPGA, high-speed data reading and writing between FPGA and two DDR3s,
data bit width is 32 bits, and the bandwidth of the whole system is up to 25Gb.
/s(800M*32bit); The two DDR3 capacities are up to 8Gbit, which meets the
need for high buffers during data processing. The selected FPGA is the
XC7A200T chip of XILINX's ARTIX-7 series, in BGA 484 package. The
communication frequency between the XC7A200T and DDR3 reaches 400Mhz
and the data rate is 800Mhz, which fully meets the needs of high-speed
multi-channel data processing. In addition, the XC7A200T FPGA features four
GTP high-speed transceivers with speeds up to 6.6Gb/s per channel, making it
ideal for fiber-optic communications and PCIe data communications.

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Figure 1-1-1: The Schematic Diagram of the AX7201
Through this diagram, you can see the interfaces and functions that the
AX7201 FPGA Development Board contains:
Artix-7 FPGA core board
The core board consists of XC7A200T + 8Gb DDR3 + 128Mb QSPI
FLASH. There are two high-precision Sitime LVDS differential crystals,
one at 200MHz and the other at 125MHz, providing stable clock input
for FPGA systems and GTP modules.
4-channel Gigabit Ethernet Interface RJ-45 interface
The Gigabit Ethernet interface chip uses Realtek's RTL8211EG
Ethernet PHY chip to provide network communication services to users.
RTL8211EG chip supports 10/100/1000 Mbps network transmission
rate. Full duplex and adaptive

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4-channel high-speed SFP Interface
The four high-speed transceivers of the GTP transceiver of ARTIX-7
FPGA are connected to the transmission and reception of four optical
modules to realize four high-speed optical fiber communication
interfaces. Each fiber optic data communication receives and transmits
at speeds up to 6.6 Gb/s.
1-channel VGA Output interface
16-bit color VGA analog output, RGB565 format, can generate 32
gradient grade red and blue signals and 64 gradient grade green
signals
1-channel Uart to USB interface
1 Uart to USB interface for communication with the computer for user
debugging. The serial port chip is the USB-UAR chip of Silicon Labs
CP2102GM, and the USB interface is the MINI USB interface.
40-pin expansion port
40-pin 0.1inch spacing expansion port can be connected to various
ALINX modules (binocular camera, TFT LCD screen, high-speed AD
module, etc.). The expansion port contains 1 channel 5V power supply,
2 channel 3.3V power supply, 3 way ground, 34 IOs port.
JTAG Interface
A 10-pin 0.1 spacing standard JTAG ports for FPGA program download
and debugging.
Key
2 Keys; 1 reset Key (on the core board)
LED Light
3 user LEDs (1 on the core board and 2 on the Carrier Board)

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Part 2: AC7200 Core Board Introduction
AC7200 (core board model, the same below) FPGA core board, it is based
on XILINX's ARTIX-7 series 200T AC7200-2FGG484I. It is a high-performance
core board with high speed, high bandwidth and high capacity. It is suitable for
high-speed data communication, video image processing, high-speed data
acquisition, etc.
This AC7200 core board uses two pieces of MICRON's
MT41J256M16HA-125 DDR3 chip, each DDR has a capacity of 4Gbit; two
DDR chips are combined into a 32-bit data bus width, and the read/write data
bandwidth between FPGA and DDR3 is up to 25Gb; such a configuration can
meet the needs of high bandwidth data processing.
The AC7200 core board expands 180 standard IO ports of 3.3V level, 15
standard IO ports of 1.5V level, and 4 pairs of GTP high speed RX/TX
differential signals. For users who need a lot of IO, this core board will be a
good choice. Moreover, the routing between the FPGA chip and the interface is
equal length and differential processing, and the core board size is only 45*55
(mm), which is very suitable for secondary development.

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AC7200 Core Board (Front View)
AC7200 Core Board (Rear View)
Part 2.1: FPGA Chip
As mentioned above, the FPGA model we use is AC7200-2FGG484I,
which belongs to Xilinx's Artix-7 series. The speed grade is 2, and the
temperature grade is industry grade. This model is a FGG484 package with
484 pins. Xilinx ARTIX-7 FPGA chip naming rules as below
The Specific Chip Model Definition of ARTIX-7 Series