Digilent Nexys3 Board

Overview

The Nexys-3 digital system development platform features Xilinx's Spartan-6 FPGA, 48Mbytes of external memory (including two non-volatile phase-change memories from Micron), and enough I/O devices and ports to host a wide variety of digital systems. The Nexys3 is an ideal platform for any engineer to gain experience with Xilinx's Spartan-6 technologies, and it is perfectly suited to the classroom.

What is included?

  • The Nexys3 board featuring the XC6LX16-1CS324 FPGA
  • Micro-USB cable
    • Can be used to power the board

Suggested use of this board

  • Student projects using any of the built-in features of the board
  • Designing combinatorial/sequential circuits
  • Creating embedded systems

Spartan-6 FPGA Features

  • 2,278 logic slices, each with four 6-input LUTs and 8 flip-flops
  • 576 Kbits of fast block RAM
  • Two clock management tiles (4 DCM and 2 PLL)
  • 32 DSP slices
  • Internal clock speeds exceeding 500 MHz
Hardware

Key Features

Feature Description
FPGA
  • XC6SLX16-1CSG324C
I/O Interfaces
  • USB-UART for programming and serial communication
  • One 10/100 Ethernet
  • 8-bit VGA output
  • USB HID Host for mice, keyboards and memory sticks
Memory
  • 16 Mbyte CellularRAM
  • 16 Mbyte SPI (quad mode) PCM non-volatile memory
  • 16 Mbyte parallel PCM non-volatile memory
Displays
  • One 4-digit 7-segment display
Switches and LEDs
  • 8 Slide switches
  • 8 LEDs
  • 5 Push-buttons
Clocks
  • One 100 MHz oscillator
Expansion ports
  • 4 Pmod ports
  • 40 pin High-Speed Expansion port
Tools & IP
ISE Design Suite: WebPack Edition ISE® WebPACK™ design software is the industry´s only FREE, fully featured front-to-back FPGA design solution for Linux, Windows XP, and Windows 7. ISE WebPACK is the ideal downloadable solution for FPGA and CPLD design offering HDL synthesis and simulation, implementation, device fitting, and JTAG programming. ISE WebPACK delivers a complete, front-to-back design flow providing instant access to the ISE features and functionality at no cost.
ISE Design Suite: System Edition

ISE® Design Suite is the Industry-proven solution for Xilinx programmable devices including 7 series (and pre-7 series devices) and Zynq™-7000 SoC.  It facilitates designing and verification of digital circuits in the application areas of pure logic design, embedded system design, digital signal processing, communication by providing tools such as ChipScope Pro, Embedded Development Kit, Software Development Kit, System Generator for DSP, and High-Level Synthesis. 

Docs & Designs
Additional Resources