Migrating Hardware from the XEM3050 to XEM6010

The XEM6010 was designed to be as compatible as possible with our XEM3010 in order to facilitate customer design migration with minimal changes.  As a result, the XEM6010 is also positioned to replace the XEM3050 in many applications.  Depending on logic requirements, the XEM6010-LX45 or XEM6010-LX150 could replace the XEM3050.

Four I/O Banks → Two I/O Banks

The Spartan-3 device used on the XEM3050 has eight I/O banks, four of which are routed to the expansion connectors.  Each of these four has selectable I/O bank voltages.  The Spartan-6 device on the XEM6010 only has four total I/O banks, two of which are routed to the expansion connectors.  This is a consideration in designs where multiple I/O bank voltages were used.

LVDS output on the Spartan-6 is restricted to banks 0 and 2.  LVDS input is available on all banks.  For more information, please refer to the Spartan-6 FPGA SelectIO Resources User Guide from Xilinx.

64 MiB SDR SDRAM → 128 MiB DDR2 SDRAM

The XEM3050 has 64 MiB of on-board single-data-rate SDRAM available as two 32 MiB devices.  The XEM6010 replaces this with a faster, higher-capacity 128-MiB double-data-rate SDRAM.  The Spartan-6 also has an internal memory control block (MCB) which provides a DDR2 controller to designs without consuming significant FPGA fabric.

Synchronous SRAM Removed

The XEM6010 does not have the 9 MiB synchronous SRAM that is on the XEM3050.

Expansion Connector Differences

The following table lists the expansion connector differences:

XEM3050XEM6010
JP2-3 is +2.5VDDJP2-3 is a no-connect
JP2-10 is a no-connectJP2-10 is VREF_BANK1
JP2-35 is +VCCO3JP2-35 is +VCCO1
JP2-55 is +VCCO2JP2-55 is +VCCO1
JP3-7 is SYS_CLK6JP3-7 is +1.8VDD
JP3-36 is +VCCO6JP3-36 is +VCCO0
JP3-56 is +VCCO7JP3-56 is +VCCO0

JTAG Connectivity

The XEM3050 has a header for connecting the Xilinx JTAG Platform Cable.  Boards attached to the XEM3050 expansion connectors see TCK, TMS, TDI as inputs and TDO as an output.  Therefore, from the perspective of the attached board, the XEM3050 is the JTAG controller.

The XEM6010 does not have a header for the Xilinx Platform Cable.  This role has been migrated to the BRK6110 or other attached board.  Boards attached to the XEM6010 provide TCK, TMS, TDI as outputs to the XEM6010 and receive TDO as an input from the XEM6010.  Therefore, from the perspective of the attached board, the XEM6010 is a JTAG device.