Survey: FPGA PCB layout
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Posted by Dave on April 17, 2008, 12:43 pm
Please log in for more thread options optimal FPGA pinouts, for making PCB layouts nice, pretty, and clean? The brute force method is fairly maddening. I'd be curious to hear if anybody has any 'tricks of the trade' here. Also, just out of curiosity, how many of you do your own PCB layout, versus farming it out? It would certainly save us a lot of money to buy the tools and do it ourselves, but it seems like laying out a board out well requires quite a bit of experience, especially a 6-8 layer board with high pin count FPGA's. We're just setting up a hardware shop here, and although I've been doing FPGA and board schematics design for a while, it's always been at a larger company with resources to farm the layout out, and we never did anything high-speed to really worry about the board layout too much. Thanks in advance for your opinions. Dave | ||||
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Posted by qrk on April 17, 2008, 1:40 pm
Please log in for more thread options Sure wish there was a slick way of doing FPGA pinouts. I usually use graph paper and figure out the FPGA pinout to other parts to minimize routing snarls. I do pcb layouts on my own and other folks designs. Our boards have high-speed routing, switching power supplies, and high-gain analog stuff; sometimes all on the same board. Unless the service bureau has someone who understands how to lay out such circuitry and place sensitive analog stuff near digital junk, it is more trouble to farm out than do it yourself if you want the board to work on the first cut. Doing your own layout will take a lot of learning to master the PCB layout program and what your board vendor can handle. It will take 5 to 10 complicated boards to become mildly proficient at layout. I don't know about saving cost. Your time may be better spent doing other activities rather than learning about layout and doing the layouts. The upside to doing your own layout - you control the whole design from start to finish. If you have a challenging layout, you'll have a much higher probability of having a working board on the first try which has hidden savings (getting to market earlier <- less troubleshooting + less respins). --- Mark | ||||
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Posted by Joerg on April 17, 2008, 1:50 pm
Please log in for more thread options qrk wrote:
> wrote:
> >> Does anybody out there have a good methodology for determining your
>> optimal FPGA pinouts, for making PCB layouts nice, pretty, and clean? >> The brute force method is fairly maddening. I'd be curious to hear if >> anybody has any 'tricks of the trade' here. >> >> Also, just out of curiosity, how many of you do your own PCB layout, >> versus farming it out? It would certainly save us a lot of money to >> buy the tools and do it ourselves, but it seems like laying out a >> board out well requires quite a bit of experience, especially a 6-8 >> layer board with high pin count FPGA's. >> >> We're just setting up a hardware shop here, and although I've been >> doing FPGA and board schematics design for a while, it's always been >> at a larger company with resources to farm the layout out, and we >> never did anything high-speed to really worry about the board layout >> too much. Thanks in advance for your opinions. >> >> Dave >
> Sure wish there was a slick way of doing FPGA pinouts. I usually use > graph paper and figure out the FPGA pinout to other parts to minimize > routing snarls. > > I do pcb layouts on my own and other folks designs. Our boards have > high-speed routing, switching power supplies, and high-gain analog > stuff; sometimes all on the same board. Unless the service bureau has > someone who understands how to lay out such circuitry and place > sensitive analog stuff near digital junk, it is more trouble to farm > out than do it yourself if you want the board to work on the first > cut. > Or find a good layouter and develop a long-term business relationship. My layouter knows just from looking at a schematic which areas are critical. He's a lot older than I am and that is probably one of the reasons why his stuff works without much assistance from me. Nothing can replace a few decades of experience. > Doing your own layout will take a lot of learning to master the PCB
> layout program and what your board vendor can handle. It will take 5 > to 10 complicated boards to become mildly proficient at layout. I > don't know about saving cost. Your time may be better spent doing > other activities rather than learning about layout and doing the > layouts. ... Yep, that's why I usually do not do my own layouts. Occassionally I route a small portion of a circuit and send that to my layouter. No DRC or anything, just to show him how I'd like it done. > ... The upside to doing your own layout - you control the whole
> design from start to finish. If you have a challenging layout, you'll > have a much higher probability of having a working board on the first > try which has hidden savings (getting to market earlier <- less > troubleshooting + less respins). > > --- > Mark -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM. | ||||
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Posted by Steve on April 17, 2008, 5:13 pm
Please log in for more thread options
> qrk wrote:
>> wrote:
>> >>> Does anybody out there have a good methodology for determining your >>> optimal FPGA pinouts, for making PCB layouts nice, pretty, and clean? >>> The brute force method is fairly maddening. I'd be curious to hear if >>> anybody has any 'tricks of the trade' here. >>> >>> Also, just out of curiosity, how many of you do your own PCB layout, >>> versus farming it out? It would certainly save us a lot of money to >>> buy the tools and do it ourselves, but it seems like laying out a >>> board out well requires quite a bit of experience, especially a 6-8 >>> layer board with high pin count FPGA's. >>> >>> We're just setting up a hardware shop here, and although I've been >>> doing FPGA and board schematics design for a while, it's always been >>> at a larger company with resources to far | ||||
>optimal FPGA pinouts, for making PCB layouts nice, pretty, and clean?
>The brute force method is fairly maddening. I'd be curious to hear if
>anybody has any 'tricks of the trade' here.
>
>Also, just out of curiosity, how many of you do your own PCB layout,
>versus farming it out? It would certainly save us a lot of money to
>buy the tools and do it ourselves, but it seems like laying out a
>board out well requires quite a bit of experience, especially a 6-8
>layer board with high pin count FPGA's.
>
>We're just setting up a hardware shop here, and although I've been
>doing FPGA and board schematics design for a while, it's always been
>at a larger company with resources to farm the layout out, and we
>never did anything high-speed to really worry about the board layout
>too much. Thanks in advance for your opinions.
>
>Dave