Welcome to Pipistrello
Pipistrello is a FPGA development board for Xilinx Spartan-6 parts in 324 BGA package, desiged by Saanlima Electronics.
For more info contact magnus@saanlima.com
Pipistrello Rev 2.0 Hardware Description
Board features:
FPGA: Spartan-6 LX9, LX16, LX25 or LX45 in 324 BGA package
Flash memory: 128 Mbit SPI flash memory (Micron N25Q128A13ESE40G) wired for 1x, 2x or 4x wide data path
On-board DRAM: 64 MBytes (32Mx16) of LPDDR memory (Micron MT46H32M16LFBF-5) clocked at 200 MHz (up to 800 MBytes/s transfer rate) in 60 BGA package
USB device interface: High-speed (480 Mbits/s) interface using a 2-channel FTDI FT2232H chip. Channel A is wired for JTAG. Channel B is wired for serial or async FIFO mode.
DVI/HDMI interface: Full HDMI interface (including I2C level translators for DDC) using a 19-pin HDMI type A connector
Audio output: Two-channel audio output using 1-bit sigma-delta DAC
Micro-SD card: Socket for micro-SD card, wired for SPI or native (4x wide) SD interface
PMOD interface: Double-row PMOD connector that will allow the use of a wide range of PMOD devices (see below for more info on PMOD devices)
LED indicators: Power (green), config state (yellow), five user-defined
User I/O: Papilio-style wing interface with 48 user-defined I/O signals. The boards have female headers installed on the wing interface.
Form factor: Similar to Papilio One (2.9" x 2.7")
Assembled and tested in USA
How to purchase a board
Boards are available for purchase in the Saanlima Electronics web store.
Check out the store here: saanlima.com/store
Orders are typically shipped the same day if received before 2pm. Shipped from Milpitas, California, USA.
Board design files
Board design files Copyright Saanlima Electronics 2012 and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. See CC BY-SA 4.0 for more info.
- schematic (pdf)
- board outline top (pdf)
- board outline bottom (pdf)
- Eagle schematic file
- Eagle board file
Xilinx ISE support files
- Generic ucf file, edit as needed Updated 5/19/2013
- EDK board description files Unzip and copy Saanlima directory to C:\Xilinx\XX.X\ISE_DS\EDK\board
Complete Xilinx ISE project examples
- Simple character echo-back (XISE project) Complete XISE project including source code. See Saanlima Forum for more info
- Pacman on Pipistrello (XISE project) Complete XISE project including source code. See Pacman via HDMI (video)
- OpenBench Logic Sniffer 64MB 10052013 (XISE project) This is the complete XISE project for OLS ported to Pipistrello (64MB buffer version, both serial and fifo interface mode)
- OpenBench Logic Sniffer 64MB 05282014 (XISE project) This is the complete XISE project for OLS ported to Pipistrello (fifo interface mode with edge trigger support)
- NES on Pipistrello (XISE project) Complete XISE project including source code for Pipistrello NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) emulation
- Parallax Propeller 1 on Pipistrello (XISE project) Complete XISE project including source code for running the Parallax Propeller 1 processor on Pipistrello
Tutorials
- Microblaze for Linux Howto.pdf
- Jim Duckworth's excellent "Microblaze MCS" howto
- EJ Pol's great "Pipistrello on Ubuntu" howto
- Xilinx xapp495 "Implementing a TMDS Interface in the Spartan-6 FPGA Use this ucf file to compile vtc_demo for Pipistrello
Bit files
The bit files can be loaded to ram (fpgaprog -v -f <bitfile>) or written to flash (fpgaprog -v -f <bitfile> -b bscan_spi_lx45_csg324.bit -sa -r)
- pacman.bit Pacman game, can be played with the GadgetFactory LogicStart wing
- bouncing_ball.bit Arduino example using HDMI display
- vtc_demo.bit HDMI test, this is a modified version of Xilinx xapp495, default is VGA but pulling one of A0 - A5 to 3.3V will select higher resolution (up to 1440x900)
- linux.bit Note: this must be put in flash since it has the linux kernel and file system in addition to the fpga bit file
- nes_top_smb_mb.bit Super Mario game, can be played using a NES game controller hocked-up to the PMOD connector. For more info see this Saanlima forum page
- pipi-robo4.bit Robotron ported to Pipistrello by Brad Parker
- Bit file and instructions how to install and run DOOM on Pipistrello See it in action in this DOOM video
Utility program download
JTAG programming utility (including binary):
On Linux you might have to give yourself root access to the ftdi device. See this forum post for more info.
PMOD devices
A wide range of PMOD devices are available including A/D and D/A converters, wifi, bluetooth and ethernet communication modules and much more.
- PMOD devices from Digilent Inc.
- PMOD devices from Maxim Integrated
- PMOD device from Avnet
- PMOD devices from Saanlima Electrronics
Open Bench Logic Sniffer on Pipistrello
Microblaze Arduino
- Arduino-1.5.2_on_Pipistrello UPDATED! 6/8/2013 Arduino-1.5.2 ported to Pipistrello and running on a 32-bit Microblaze processor at 100 MHz
Microblaze Linux
- Linux_on_Pipistrello UPDATED! 2/16/2013
Misc links
- Early customer review of Pipistrello v2.0 Alex The Kidd's Blog
- Hamsterworks Dvid_test
- ZX Spectrum on Pipistrello Jozsef Laszlo's implementation of ZX Spectrum using HDMI display
- Bombjack game on Pipistrello (and Papilio Pro) Alex implementation of Bombjack
- Markus Mayer's firsthand impression
Forums
Saanlima.com forums are now up and running. Check it out here: saanlima.com/forum
