Question : Compatibility with XC7S25 Spartan-7 for SGMII core

[PJfixer]

Hello everyone,

For a project, I need to use SGMII as a communication interface. As a beginner, I'm currently searching for a cheap FGPA board able to support SGMII synthesis.

I was thinking using this dev board : https://digilent.com/shop/cmod-s7-breadboardable-spartan-7-fpga-module/

it's based on spartan-7 , i saw that in this project SGMII is compatible with the Xilinx 7-Series so it should be ok ?

Best regards.

[enjoy-digital]

Hi @PJfixer,

for SGMII, you'll need to have a transceiver, which is not the case of the Spartan-7. An Artix-7 FPGA with transceiver would however be a good choice.

[PJfixer]

Hi @enjoy-digital ,

Thanks for your answer !

Just to clarify, when you speak about transceiver you mean external compoents ? or inside the FPGA ? I was planning to use this open source project as cheap SFP breakout board : https://osmocom.org/projects/misc-hardware/wiki/Sfp-experimenter

if i understand well the only things i need with this is an FPGA with LVDS outputs and an SGMII ip core , i'm right ?

It seems i'm lucky there is also the cmod A7-35Tboard which is built with an artix-7 https://digilent.com/shop/cmod-a7-35t-breadboardable-artix-7-fpga-module/

[enjoy-digital]

With LiteEth, you'll need to have GTP exposed on your Artix7. It's probably technically possible to just use LVDS pins, but you'll need a Soft CDR IP core to recover the RX clock from the 8B10B encoding, which is not yet available in LiteX/LiteEth. I'm not sure the CMOD-A7 expose some GTP. An Artix7 boards with PCIe connector would do it. The Acorn CLE215+ or Nite/LiteFury could be a good choice: https://www.amazon.com/RHS-Research-Litefury-Artix-7-Development/dp/B08BKSVJH5