Suspiciously cheap Xilinx Virtex on ebay - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: basher4
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 15, 2021, 08:14:15 pm
content: I found these incredibly cheap Virtex FPGAs on ebayhttps://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5PC-XC7VX485T-2FFG1761C-A6-2/333780783898.It ends up being about 2 quid per board with shipping, which is a steal. Plus I never designed a board with BGA components and I need to start somewhereBut for that price I'm thinking what's the catch? Do you think I'd get the real thing, a different re-engraved chip or just a cool paperweight?I never bought any substantial component from ebay so I just want to get opinion of more experienced people.Is there even a way to check if it is working at all without a board? Even destructively if needs be.One pretty obvious downside is that Vivado license is not included but I can use a uni license so that's not a deal breaker for me.

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 15, 2021, 08:29:48 pm
content: Probably a wrong listed item. The description doesn't make any sense, title says 5 pcs, but available 10, yet the price is for 1? Not to say the price is many orders of magnitude off.Buy them with ebay protection. Then resell them if they really are Virtex 7. For an absolute beginner, there is no chance to develop your own Virtex 7 board. The PCBs alone will cost many hundreds.

author: asmi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 15, 2021, 09:08:03 pm
content: You will need a paid license for Vivado in order to do anything with them.

author: NorthGuy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2021, 12:32:34 am
content: It will take lots of money, time, and effort to figure out if it works. Will it really help if you get few pounds back because they're not working? Besides, if you're a beginner, you may never know whether the chip was bad or you screwed up with the board.

author: SMB784
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2021, 02:01:45 am
content: If you are looking for a cheap, top of the line FPGA chip, I highly recommend the SQRL Acorn 215 board. It comes with anArtix7 XC7A200T, which is the top range Artix part. It's also the highest spec FPGA that can be programmed with the free version of Vivado, so you dont need to spend extra on the license. The board itself has 12 GPIO outs, externally accessible JTAG flash, 4 user defined LEDs, and an .M2 connector for interface with PCIe. Its a great board for an advanced beginner.You can find them onEbay for $60-$80. I have created agithub repositorythat loads a minimal hardware configuration that will blink all the LEDs at a unique rate, and output square waves on all GPIO pins with a frequency unique to each pin; this is so you can test the board when you get it to see if it works.There is also a thread on this forumdescribing our attempts to repurpose the board from its original use as a bitcoin miner to a generic, more useful and less specialized FPGA board.This may be a more reasonable project if you are looking for a fun, powerful FPGA to work/learn with.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2021, 02:16:57 am
content: Quote from: basher4 on February 15, 2021, 08:14:15 pmInterestingly, it's the same price for all the parts they sell, with definitely different cost.

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2021, 08:33:11 am
content: That's one messed up store, wrong part numbers/pictures, prices all over the place and not at all reflecting the value of the parts (could just be a huge bargain).Odd.

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2021, 12:41:21 pm
content: Quote from: SMB784 on February 16, 2021, 02:01:45 amTo OP, another very cheap but smaller FPGA is Zynq 7010, with dual core ARM at 866 MHz, a smaller 28 kLE FPGA, 256 MB DDR3 and LAN, from former cryptocurrency miners. Only $10-15, perfect to learn FPGA for the given price. Schematics and repositories available online, can be used without extra costs/licenses, can even run Linux for free.Search for EBAZ4205 Zynq. There is a thread here about it, too:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/fpga/ebaz4205-(zynq-7000-based-development-board)/

author: basher4
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 18, 2021, 04:10:47 pm
content: Thanks everyone. The ebaz seems pretty neat, especially with that value. I'll give that a shot and see how I'll get along.