News
FMC DEL 1ns 4cha
02-09-2011: V2 works
The just-arrived V2 prototype was confirmed to work with the new VHDL firmware on a SPEC card. See Measurements for details.
FMC DEL 1ns 4cha
31-08-2011: Received V2 boards
We received assembled prototypes of V2 of the fine delay module. The firmware for the Fine delay module on a SPEC card is being developed and should be ready for demonstration in around two weeks time.
Simple PCIe FMC carrier SPEC
26-08-2011: Absolutely ready for production!
The modification for a better mechanical fit has been made and halogen-PCBs will be ordered to start the first series production of SPEC boards.
A serious piece of automated test software has been made that will check all soldered connections on the board and that will measure the different supply voltages. This is all possible because of the groundwork done by the Production Test Suite project software logically called PTS and the FMC Carrier tester test card that measures all connections to the FMC connector. We have used these to create the “PTS for SPEC” production software. The user manual gives a good overview of the ease of use.
FMC Carrier tester
24-08-2011: 5 production test cards working
Five of the FMC carrier tester cards are working. Two of them will be sent to the company that will produce the Simple PCI express carrier.
Simple PCIe FMC carrier SPEC
22-08-2011: V3 ready, let's go for V4!
The V3 of the design was ready for production on 22 July. We’d like to
produce 70 of those cards of this version, apart from the fact that a
user at GSI just found a mechanical problem that could appear with a
certain combination of SFP plugin and PC type. Being just in time to
correct this by simply moving the SFP 2.5 mm further out on the PCB, we
decided to make a V4 of the PCB.
Why a V4 while the V3 never was produced? As this will ease the
tracibility as possibly copies of this Open Design design may already be
around!
VXS DSP FMC carrier
02-08-2011 VXS-DSP-FMC Carrier V1 Prototype fab. launched
The PCB layout of the VXS-DSP-FMC Carrier V1 prototype (EDMS:
EDA-02281-V1.0) has been finished on July 21th 2011.
The layout process had been started march 18th 2011 but was initially
found to be unroutable due to excessive real-estate usage.
Simple PCIe FMC carrier SPEC
01-07-2011: V2 boards tested
Three V2 boards have been received. One has already passed the full
production suite, two others have only received a very short test (and
passed). This means that this version can be used to start a series
production.
Actually there is still a not-understood issue that we don’t manage to
get communication between the two SATA connectors working, while from
each one to the FMC test board works OK. We are currently looking into
that and believe it is only a firmware problem.
FMC Carrier tester
01-06-2011: design files verified, can start production
The schematics and PCB design files have been verified by CERN’s design
office. We will produce soon 12 cards.
The FMC carrier tester will be used for the production tests of the SPEC
FMC carrier.
Simple PCIe FMC carrier SPEC
31-05-2011: Production test software working
For the production of the SPEC cards specific production software has been written and demonstrated. This software provides a simple go/no-go interface with logging facilities to easily find production errors. The software is written in Python and uses a CERN-written test environment called Bakara. To test the connectivity FMC connector on the SPEC card, a specific FMC carrier test card is developed that is also able to measure the different power supplies and test the different gigabit links.