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Syzygy: An open standard for low cost, compact and high-performance peripherals

syzygyfpga.io

31–33 of 33 posts

Re: Syzygy: An open standard for low cost, compact and high-performance peripherals

#31
post #30
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PCIe is extremely scalable, from Gen1 to Gen5. There is no reason that you couldn't extend one of the GenX specs down to Gen0 speeds. We are already drowning in transistors, I am not convinced by your area argument, esp in the face of shrinking nodes, we have more area than we know what to do with. https://eps.ieee.org/images/files/TC_article_Universal_Chipl... https://www.hpcwire.com/2022/05/11/intel-says-ucie-to-ou…

Yeah uh if you think microcontrollers are on 3nm... No. Most microcontrollers are on 28-40 if not larger. Lower gate widths can sometimes increase logic density and sometimes fmax but they dramatically increase static power, yields, and by extension cost (along with the other factors as outlined by your ieee source). This gross look shows what I believe are some PCIe block die areas. https://substackcdn.com/image/fet…

> Yeah uh if you think microcontrollers are on 3nm... No

Please don't put words in my mouth.

I see what you are saying, but you have to put my whole comment together. I am not saying that 8 bit MCUs are going to get GB/s capable PCIe.

Look at things like https://www.efinixinc.com/products-titanium.html with PCIe Gen4 on a 40nm SMIC process. Or more apt, the https://www.wch-ic.com/products/CH384.html PCIe to printer port bridge.

Arguing that I think an Atmega328p should be running PCIe is a ridiculous straw man.

Re: Syzygy: An open standard for low cost, compact and high-performance peripherals

#32
post #31
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah uh if you think microcontrollers are on 3nm... No. Most microcontrollers are on 28-40 if not larger. Lower gate widths can sometimes increase logic density and sometimes fmax but they dramatically increase static power, yields, and by extension cost (along with the other factors as outlined by your ieee source). This gross look shows what I believe are some PCIe block die areas. https://substackcdn.com/image/fet…

> Yeah uh if you think microcontrollers are on 3nm... No Please don't put words in my mouth. I see what you are saying, but you have to put my whole comment together. I am not saying that 8 bit MCUs are going to get GB/s capable PCIe. Look at things like https://www.efinixinc.com/products-titanium.html with PCIe Gen4 on a 40nm SMIC process. Or more apt, the https://www.wch-ic.com/products/CH384.html PCIe to printer p…

That's on me for confusing you with the original commentor who suggested adding PCIe onto that chip.

Also, Efinix hasn't proven themselves yet. I've been following their titanium line for years. Every year they say they're getting transceivers. And every part that comes out that was supposed to (first the Ti180, now the 375) is missing transceivers. Sidetracking here that I honestly don't know what's wrong with them, they've taped out a handful of these parts since I started using them, but they evidently cannot get high speed serial working.

Re: Syzygy: An open standard for low cost, compact and high-performance peripherals

#33
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds interesting (analog addressing). Could you expound?

With many of these types of standards (FMC and Syzygy) it becomes helpful to include some form of memory on the peripheral cards. With Syzygy it is required in order to store some helpful data about the card (product name, manufacturer) along with supported voltage ranges for an adjustable voltage rail from the carrier board. FMC used standard off the shelf I2C eeproms for this task, with some pins on the FMC connect…

Thank you for the explanation. Very interesting!
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