A first for ipXchange, Digilent invited us over to their booth via LinkedIn after seeing our previous posts. Originally, we wanted to get the scoop on their Nexus A7 board, which we saw at the Codasip booth, but in lieu of that, we were treated to another board with an interesting, more hands-on demo.
As Arthur explains, Digilent’s Eclypse Z7 is a great modular platform for developing embedded measurement systems. The demo expands the main processor/FPGA board with a pair of Zmod Scope expansion boards to plot the acceleration data from a sensor fitted inside a ball.
But this board is not just limited for use in test-and-measurement applications. The FPGA can be reprogrammed via JTAG, and the board is expandable through two Pmod connectors, in addition to the two Zmod connectors, which use the open-source SYZYGY standard. Digilent currently produces a scope, AWG, and (new) digitizer module for their Zmod front ends, but, as shown in our interview, some engineers are getting very creative with what kind of systems can be built using the Eclypse Z7 as a basis.