The AudioSpartan Platform

AudioSpartan was designed in order to rapidly prototype FPGA based digital audio systems. It is a low-cost integrated environment centered around the Xilinx Spartan series of FPGAs.

An Integrated System

The AudioSpartan system consists of a highly-integrated development board and a series of expansion boards that contain additonal functionality to rapidly prototype any kind of digital audio system around an FPGA. In addition to the platform hardware, a complete VHDL framework is included to directly drop your signal processing blocks into. Using only the Xilinx ISE System, this guarantees that costs can be kept at a bare minimum for those only passively interested in developing VHDL code with AudioSpartan. Make no mistake though, AudioSpartan is a complete environment for hobbyists and seasoned professionals alike.

ASD-1 Main Board

The heart of the AudioSpartan system is the ASD-1 development board. There are various models of ASD-1, ranging in FPGA sizes from 500K gates to 1.6M gates for user designs.

In addition to the FPGA, there is a complete set of features for developing most audio systems, including:

• A sample rate clock management CPLD that not only controls local master clocks, but also includes a built-in PLL to lock to external word clock sources. The clock management system can be controlled either by local DIP switches or via FPGA control.
• 4-Channel 24-bit analog input and 6-channel analog output with support for up to 192kHz sample rate.
• Optical 24-bit S/PDIF I/O with support for 192kHz sample rate.
• On-board 512Kx32 SRAM for local high-speed DSP buffers.
• SDRAM SODIMM socket for expanded buffer memory.
• Expansion board bus to connect optional ASX boards for increased functionality. This bus is mounted on 0.1" headers to accomodate user designed boards.
• Complete VHDL source code for all peripheral interfaces.

ASX Expansion Boards

In the coming months, we will be releasing a series of ASX expansion boards for the AudioSpartan system. Currently, we have the following boards planned:

• AIO1 8 Channel Analog I/O Expansion Board
• ADAT 32 Channel ADAT I/O Expansion Board
• MEM1 Flash memory and additional SRAM Expansion Board
• MARM ARM CPU Expansion Board
• GPIO Microcontroller assisted GPIO Module
• UBBM Universal Breadboard Module

Additional information will be available when these boards are closer to completion.

Pricing and Availability

The ASD-1 is available in three different models, the ASD-1/500, ASD-1/1200 and ASD-1/1600. Initial production is subject to sufficient interest, and can start as soon as September, 2007. We are now accepting pre-orders, so contact our sales department if you're interested in the system.

ASD-1 System Pricing

When we open our ordering system, we will offer flexible payment options including PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, and other credit cards.