Official bladeRF forum

Hi,

Is there a FPGA pinout difference between Bladerfx40 and Bladerfx115? The schematics provided by nuand show only the EP4CE15A115F484 chip.

Thanks and regards.

Jehangir

I don't claim to be an FPGA expert, or, more to the point, Altera FPGAs, but as I understand Altera's designs of the FPGAs in our bladeRFs(I have one of the x115 boards), the only difference is the number of "Logic Elements". There may be some other differences, but the "pinout" between the x40 and x115 should be the same.

Hi again,

Thanks for the reply.

Sure the the pinout for the same type of FPGA remains the same whatever the logic size. What I meant to say was if the interconnections between the FX3<--->FPGA<--->LMS6002D are exactly the same on the two boards.

Cheers.

Jehangir

The 15 kLE part # is vestige of the Kickstarter days - I've asked if we can get those schematics updated to show a 40 or 115 kLE to avoid future confusion.

To answer your question: That Cyclone IV F series has full vertical migration, hence the pin compatibility. There is only one PCB layout for the original x15 design, as well as the current x40 and x115 design. Everything is the same and you can rely on those schematics.

- Jon

I named the symbol EP4CE15A115F484 because it is compatible with everything from the 15KLE to the 115KLE Cylone IV F23 (484pin) package FPGA. The devices in that family are foot print compatible with the exception of a few IO pins that claimed for grounding purposes on the larger FPGAs. The 15KLE FPGA has the fewest number of such pins, whereas the 115KLE has about 36 pins. The symbol name shouldn't indicate that it is only compatible with the 15KLE and the 115KLE FPGAs, the symbol is actually compatible with everything from the 15KLE to the 115KLE FPGA.

Thanks Jon and Robert. This clarifies the issue.

Have a nice day.

Jehangir