Date   : Sun, 28 Aug 2005 13:52:14 +0100
From   : "Dr. David Alan Gilbert" <beeb@...>
Subject: Re: 80186 co-pro

* Phil Blundell (philb@...) wrote:
> On Fri, 2005-08-12 at 07:35 +0100, Sprow wrote:
> > A small FPGA with distributed RAM is the way, then a can make the FIFO a few
> > kB long!
> 
> It turns out that suitable FPGAs are not quite as common as one might
> hope.  Most of the newer ones (Spartan-3 and the like) lack 5V
> tolerance, which would be a pain.  My first idea was to use a
> Spartan/XL, but on further investigation it seems to be difficult to get
> synthesis tools for those. 

Aren't there some small logic level converter chips (basically a bunch
of FETs) that are used for solving this type of stuff? I seem to remember
they are typically 8 per chip.
(Maxim seems to list zillions of similar types of things:
http://para.maxim-ic.com/compare.asp?Fam=bidirtranslators&Tree=Interface&HP=Interface.cfm&ln
)

Dave

--
 -----Open up your eyes, open up your mind, open up your code -------   
/ Dr. David Alan Gilbert    | Running GNU/Linux on Alpha,68K| Happy  \ 
\ gro.gilbert @ treblig.org | MIPS,x86,ARM,SPARC,PPC & HPPA | In Hex /
 \ _________________________|_____ http://www.treblig.org   |_______/