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Spartan Provides Lava Computer with Flexibility from the Design Stage through Production for High Volume PC Application
 MFG Inc., a Canadian-based
PC I/O port manufacturer, was the first to introduce PCI parallel port
technology to the PC industry. Lava PCI products accelerate
parallel ports to three times the speed of current motherboard ports, and
twice as fast as USB, thereby giving a backward compatible alternative
to the market over newer replacement technologies. Established in 1984,
Lava Computer has gained a worldwide reputation for meticulous attention
to detail, and unmatched manufacturing quality standards. Lava turned
to Xilinx low-cost Spartan FPGAs for their high volume application.
In the constantly evolving world of the PC, the pursuit of a faster system is an ongoing challenge for even the occasional user. As users embark upon the task of upgrading their PC, they tend to do so without a second thought to the parallel connection. Although the goal is a faster computer, users may be oblivious to the speed of the connection to the external peripherals. Lava has broken through the I/O speed barriers by introducing SCSI-like speeds to the parallel port. Lava PCI boards are sold through various channels. These include retail for those looking to add additional I/O ports to their PCs, OEMs such as POS (Point of Sale) manufacturers, as well as through VARs (Value Added Resellers). Lava offers a wide range of PCI products. Twelve of the seventeen products contain the Xilinx Spartan low-cost FPGAs. “Going directly to an ASIC would not have allowed us to cost-effectively design and produce our product. Basically, this was a brand new, cutting-edge technology and a completely new product. We needed to make sure there would be stability in the product based upon different operating systems, so there were several changes in the actual FPGA design as the product matured,” said Mike Wynnyckyj, VP of Sales and Marketing for Lava Computer. “From a financial standpoint going to an ASIC was simply impossible. This is simply because the volumes would have required an investment into a minimum of 100,000 pieces and we had no idea what the volumes would turn out to be. The Spartan FPGA allowed us to modify the design as the product evolved.” “Not only did Spartan FPGAs offer flexibility, time to market was huge factor. Lava introduced a new PCI interface technology that was significantly less expensive than current off-the-shelf products. We were therefore very anxious to begin production” said Wynnyckyj. To quickly develop their designs, Lava selected the Xilinx Foundation Series Software version 1.5, a complete, ready-to-use solution for programmable logic design. This fully integrated design environment allows access to a complete set of design entry, synthesis, simulation, and implementation tools with a powerful and easy to use interface. The Foundation Base system allowed Lava to have a complete development package at a very low cost. Spartan in ProductionLava not only used an FPGA for the prototype; Spartan FPGAs are still in production, after 100,000 units over a period of 18 months. Volumes are projected at 15-20k units over the next four months. “We needed low cost parts with a relatively small gate count but with lots of I/O pins; Spartan FPGAs were simply the the best device available. The Xilinx staff and our local representative offered excellent service and support throughout the development stages of our product line, providing the level of customer service we demand of ourselves with our own customers,” said Wynnyckyj.The Xilinx Spartan Series was created to displace low-end (up to 40K
system gates) ASICs in volume production by providing the advantages of
fast development-to-production time and in-system reprogrammability at
competitive prices. Using an advanced process technology, the Spartan
Series substantially reduced die size over the previous generation of FPGAs
while measurably improving gate density and performance. Therefore,
when designers consider competitive pricing, time-to-production, and reprogrammability,
Xilinx Spartan Series FPGAs are the preferred technology over ASICs.
Lava ProductsThe Lava Parallel-PCI has, since its release in late 1998, become Lava’s best selling product. This easy to install PCI card adds an additional Enhanced Parallel Port (EPP) to any PCI-ecquipped PC. When connecting a Zip Drive, parallel port scanner, WebCam, or printer, users will see acceleration of up to 3X the speed of their built-in motherboard port. The Lava Parallel-PCI is based on Lava’s own PCI interface design, and is fully compatible with PCI spec 2.1, supporting Plug & Play installation with a unique vendor ID (Hex 1407), and IRQ sharing.Lava’s Dual-Parallel-PCI card is the pinnacle of the parallel port evolution. Two parallel ports share one IRQ in one PCI bus slot – and both can be used at the same time. This saves precious resources in the modern PC and makes IRQ conflicts a thing of the past. Combining an easy Plug & Play setup procedure Lava’s Dual Parallel-PCI is fully compatible with all parallel devices and is configurable to standard ISA parallel port address (0278 and 0378) for use with legacy peripherals. The LavaPort-Plus, a Dual Serial and Parallel Combo Board PCI Bus, combines both high-speed serial and parallel interfaces on one PCI bus card. LavaPort-Plus provides PC users with a single board (and shared IRQ) solution for all of their I/O connectivity needs. Incorporating two high-speed 16550 UART serial ports (one 9-pin and one 25-pin) transmit data rates up to 460.8K bps which is four times faster than Com ports currently being shipped in most PCs. The enhanced parallel port accelerates communications with parallel devices by a factor of three. With this one single, Plug & Play I/O card, users can connect 56k or ISDN external modems or digital cameras and get speed increases of 50-100%. Combined with such devices as a Zip drive or scanner, users can see a three-fold increase in performance. The LavaPort-Quad is a PCI bus 4-port 16650 UART-based serial accelerator card capable of sustained transfer rates up to 460.8K bps on each port. This PCI card is ideal for connecting four modems on a single card in SOHO and telecommuting server applications. Primarily a server product, the LavaPort-Quad provides an excellent and cost-effective remote access solution, and is also ideal for POS (Point of Sale) applications. Lava’s trademark Lifetime Warranty reflects the entire corporate philosophy
of nothing less than technical excellence. By using FPGA technology,
Lava ensures that every lava product is designed and manufactured to be
simple, configurable and most importantly, reliable.
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