Breakout boards for PLD design with Lattice ICs

EDN Europe, 28 Mar 2011

Lattice Semiconductor has announced three low-cost I/O Breakout Boards: the MachXO 2280, ispMACH 4256ZE, and Power Manager II POWR1014A. The boards provide access by hand to densely spaced PLD I/Os and pre-wired power and programming connections. For example, the 256-ball BGA package of the MachXO 2280 board is only 1.00 mm BSC (basic spacing between centers). Electrical traces of the breakout board connect each I/O to header landings that have 2.54 mm (100 mil / 0.1 inch) centered holes. By adding test probes, jumper wires or pin headers to the header landings, engineers can evaluate the MachXO sysI/O Buffer, ispMACH 4000ZE I/O cells, or POWR1014A voltage monitors, high-voltage FET drivers, and open drain outputs.
Each breakout board is 3” x 3” and has a USB B-mini connector for power and programming, an LED array and a prototype area. Each kit includes a pre-loaded hardware test program. Using Lattice design tools that are provided free of charge, the user can reprogram the on-board PLD device to evaluate custom designs.

The MachXO family of non-volatile infinitely reconfigurable PLDs is designed for applications traditionally implemented using CPLDs or low-density FPGAs. MachXO PLDs offer the benefits of increased system integration by providing embedded memory, built-in PLLs, high performance LVDS I/O, remote field upgrade (TransFR technology) and a low power sleep mode, all in a single-device.
The ispMACH 4000ZE CPLD family is for ultra-low-power, high-volume portable applications. The ispMACH 4000ZE devices offer typical standby current as low as 10µA; ultra-small, space saving 0.4mm pitch Ball Grid Array packages; 3.3V, 2.5V, and 1.8V I/O standards support; and 5-volt tolerant I/Os.
Power Manager II devices are general-purpose power-supply monitoring and sequence controllers, incorporating both in-system programmable logic and in-system programmable analog functions implemented in non-volatile E2CMOS® technology. Power Manager II devices integrate many power management functions that normally require multiple ICs.
The price for all Lattice Breakout Board Evaluation Kits is $29.99; get free software from www.latticesemi.com/products/designsoftware.