PicoEVB is an affordable, open source, development board which can be used to evaluate and prototype PCI Express designs using a Xilinx Artix 7 FPGA on Windows or Linux hosts. The boards are designed around the Artix 7 (XC7A50T).

PicoEVB front

PicoEVB back

Use Cases

While the main intent of PicoEVB is PCIe design prototyping, it can be used as an integrated part of your laptop (or desktop) computer. Use a board as an encryption co-processor for security, or as a hardware-level encoder/decoder for speedy workflows. It’s your FPGA, design what you like.

Features & Specifications

Open Source Software & Hardware

The board schematics in their final form (PDFs) will be published under a permissive license. In additon, major software components are open source:

• The "cable driver", is already CC0 licenced.
• All of the host code (PCIe drivers) used in the prototype comes from Xilinx under GPL.
• The FPGA project is derived from a freely available Xilinx sample project.

Files are being published in the project GitHub repository.

PicoEVB Block Diagram

PicoEVB high-level schematic

Compact Size

Current FPGA development boards are large. Almost all development kits require a desktop PC, or are designed to sit on a lab bench. NanoEVB aims to change this — the entire development kit fits inside a laptop! In addition, the JTAG cable is built-in, no external cables needed- just plug it into a PCIe slot and go.

Affordable

Furthermore, to explore PCIe designs, currently you need to spend over $1,000. NanoEVB and PicoEVB have PCIe connectivity to the host computer, and as such, you can design PCIe-based solutions and explore Xilinx’s IP for PCIe solutions without spending a grand and without taking up a ton of space.

Accessories

If you want a spare six-pin I/O cable, you can order them pre-crimped directly from Digi-Key: