XynergyXS - SO-DIMM Module with STM32, Spartan-6 & DDR3 RAM
Notice to our customers: As a result of the de-facto discintinuation of Spartan-6, we are no longer able to produce this product. We are already working on a similar module with more powerful components that are not as hard to procure.
XynergyXS is a compact, flexible and powerful system-on-module based on ST Microelectronics' STM32 Cortex-M4 microcontroller (up to 180MHz, 2MB internal Flash, 256kB internal RAM) and a Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA (LX16 is standard, LX45 is optional). The module comes in a 200-pin SO-DIMM (DDR2 style, 1,8V coded) and is closely related to Xynergy platform which we have developed for Silica, one of the most renowned European distributors. Because our version of the hardware is so small, we named it Xynergy "XS".
The original Xynergy board is still available from us on request. Due to some discontinued components (in particular the ethernet PHY), there is a revision 2 available that is functionally equivalent to the original version.
Interfaces, memory and applications
Besides the STM32 (STM32F407 / STM32F417 / STM32F437) and the FPGA (both in BGA packages), the module boasts one 64M x 16 DDR3 RAM attached to one of the FPGA's memory ports, and 64/128MBits of serial flash for configuration and data. The on-board PHY complements the numerous standards and general purpose interfaces with more than 130 I/O lines, up to 70 of which can be used as differential LVDS lines (i.e. 35 signal pairs connected to the FPGA). The LVDS interface may be used for FMC standard mezzanine modules. A break-out board is also available with power supplies, many interface on standard I/O connectors, including isolated CAN (2 ports), UART, LAN, SPI, I2C and USB-OTG. JTAG ports of the STM32 and the FPGA are available at standard JTAG connectors (20 pin for the ARM, 6 pin for the FPGA).
The on-board power supply requires a single 3.3Volt source while banks 0 and 2 of the FPGA may be operated on a lesser I/O voltage, e.g 2.5V, supplied separately. No more than 1 amp are required at full speed.A board support package (BSP) is available with the module.
The board can be used in motor control, M2M, internet-of-things, smart meter, laser control, green power and many more applications.
More details on this little piece of high performance piece of engineering are available from the datasheet and by request.
Development Tools
We recommend Keil ARM-MDK for software development for the STM32 (free download with code size limit of 32kBytes). Other compilers / IDEs are also suitable, such as IAR, Rowley, GNU etc.
For the Spartan-6 the free ISE from Xilinx is the best (and only) choice, available free for download at their website. The new Vivado environment does not support Spartan-6 devices anymore.