SMT702

What are the on-board reference clock options for the GTX's located at the RSL and PXIe interfaces?

RSLs and PCI Express GTX/P tiles share a common reference clock. It's either the Express reference from the Express bus (100MHz) or a 250MHz on-board crystal oscillator.

It seems that PXIe pins are accessible. Are they really accessible?

It is possible provided there is a connector on the board and to bring the signals to it (None of the connectors at the back of the board are fitted on the SMT702-STANDALONE).

Do the RSL or PXIe interface connectors contain GTX reference clock pins (such that an external reference clock could be used)?

No, I am afraid it is not possible to have an external reference clock in this case. The 100-MHz reference is what is provided on the Express bus. Lines go though a multiplexer so you can select either the 100MHz coming from the Express bus or using a 250MHz coming from a crystal on the board. Selection is made via a jumper.

What type of clocks are available for the FPGA fabric (fixed XTAL/OSC's etc)?

There is first a 66MHz crystal which is shared with the CPLD. This is used for flash and programming accesses. There is also on-board 250MHz reference (mentionned above), which also goes to seperate Global Clock (GC) pins on the FPGA. Similarly a 150MHz on board crystal is used for the GTX/P tiles dedicated to the SATA lines and is also routed to a pair of GC pins. Depending on the option, there is a PXI-CLK coming from the PCI bus. It is 33MHz (PCI based board only). Also available on the FPGA is the PXI Express synch differential pair (PCI Express board). There are 2 crystals on the board (GTX/Ps reference clocks). The first 250MHz can be used as an alternative to the 100MHz reference coming from the Express bus. It is used on the GTX/Ps dedicated to the Express lanes and the RSL connector. The second is a 150MHz crystal and is used for the GTX/Ps dedicated for the SATA lines. Note that the thirs crystal on the board (66MHz) can not be used as a reference to the GTX/P tiles.

Noticing Sundance has different flavors of the SMT702/712 boards, which board should we order to gain access to as many GTX ports as possible and still maintain ability to operate the board standing alone.

LX110T and FX70T are the boards giving access to respectively the most GTP and GTX tiles.

What is the basic set of "software", e.g. source code, basic debugging/interfacing module that come with the board without ordering SMT7026?

The SMT7026 (for Windows XP, 32-bit version) includes the HOST demo, Host-side API and software functions (please see: http://www.sundance.com/web/files/productpage.asp?STRFilter=SMT7026 ). The HOST demo application is PCI and PCI Express version only. None of them can be used on the standalone version. If the SMT7026 is not purchased, only the user constraint file for the FPGA (UCF) would then be provided. The SMT7026 package is a software package. If you purchase the SMT7026, and after signing our Non-Disclosure Agreement, you could then get the FPGA source/netlist being part of it. The FPGA project is command line based and needs to be compiled with Xilinx ISE. Note: If you wish to recompile the FPGA and to use the PCI-32 interface, you would be required to purchase the license for the Xilinx PCI core. You would not be able to implement the PCI-32 without the license for it.

Is there any trigger OUTPUT on the cards SMT702 or SMT712? Or are there any user I/O pins of FPGA available on the cards?

I am afraid there is no trigger output. We have recently added an extra MMCX connector on the boards (SMT702 and SMT712). This is not documented yet. It's meant to be used as a second trigger input (one hertz synch as an example) to the FPGA. It could be used as an output if needed, but the connector won't be on the front pannel.

Why does the card not work when using the Sundance SMT580 PXIe to PCIe converter in my PC?

When you use the SMT702 out of a NI rack, not all of the signals that the board needs are supplied.

To make the board work you will need to supply either a 10MHz reference clock (and selecting the "External" option for this in SMT7002, or an external sampling clock. Again this will need to be selected in SMT7002.

These signals need to be applied to the connectors on front panel.

Without this the board will not function correctly.