Overview
Fireboard 400™ is a 3-port (2 external ports and 1 internal port) 400Mbps FireWire Host PCI Adapter, based on the Texas Instruments TSB12LV21B (PCI Lynx 2) 1394 Link Controller to PCI Bus and TSB41AB3 1394 400Mbps PHY Layer Transceiver.
This board is by default delivered with a built-in license that acts us a runtime royalty for Unibrain’s Windows FireAPI™ SDK and drivers.
Packaging:
- One Fireboard 400™ PCI adapter.
- CD with Unibrain ubCore 3.3 1394 drivers.
- One 4.5m 6 pin – 6 pin 1394a cable (optional)
OS Supported:
- Windows NT4/98SE/Me/2000/XP
- Mac OS 9.x
- Linux
Part numbers:
- Fireboard 400™ adapter only (bulk): 1703
- Kit with CD and 4.5m 6 pin – 6 pin 1394a cable: 1701
- Fireboard 400™ adapter, special version with 2 external & 1 internal 1394a ports: 1707
Features
Unibrain’s FireBoard 400™ Host Adapter brings high-performance FireWire technology to PCI systems. Based on the Texas Instruments TSB41AB3 FireWire triple-cable transceiver/arbiter and the TSB12LV21B (PCILynx) FireWire bus to PCI bus, the FireBoard 400™ is fully compliant with the FireWire Specification and PCI 2.1. The board can connect a maximum of 63 devices and supports speeds up to 400 Mbps.
Physical Layer
- Supports Provisions of FireWire Standard for High Performance Serial Bus
- Provides Three Fully Compliant Cable Ports at 100/200/400 Mbits/sec
- Cable Ports Monitor Line Conditions for Active Connection to Remote Node
- 25.576 MHz Crystal Oscillator and PLL Provide Transmit/Receive Data at 100/200/400 Mbits/sec and Link-Layer Controller Clock at 50 MHz
- Node Power-Class Information Signaling for System Power Management
- Cable Power Presence Monitoring.
Link Layer and PCI Interface
- Supports Provisions of FireWire Standard for High-Performance Serial Bus
- Performs the Function of a FireWire Cycle Master
- Supports FireWire Transfer Rates of 100, 200 and 400 Mbit/sec
- Provides Three Sizes of Programmable FIFOs (1Kbyte)
- Provides PCI Bus Master Function for Supporting DMA Operations
- Compliant With PCI Specification 2.1
- Provides PCI Slave Function for Read/Write
- Access of Internal Registers
- Supports the plug’n play (PnP) Specification
- Operates from a 3.3-V Power Supply While Maintaining 5-V Tolerant Inputs
- Extension Headers for the Local Bus
- Autoboot mode capability that allows data-moving systems to be designed to operate on the PCI bus without the need for a host CPU.
Extension Capabilities
FireBoard 400™ can be extended in functionality and operability. This can be achieved combining the Autoboot mode capability and the Extension Headers of the Local Bus. You can design your custom system based on the PCILynx local bus as a biggy-back board attached to the FireBoard 400™.
Configuration Serial EEPROM
Low Power Dissipation Circuitry
External Power Supply
The FireBoard 400™ has an optional power connector in order to receive the cable power not only from the +12V of the PCI connector but also from an external power connector provided by the host PC power supply.
The FireWire connectors provide cable power voltage of +12V and ~400 mA for the 3 FireWire ports. So it is implied that if there is connected only one FireWire device then it can absorb max ~400mA, while if there are 3 FireWire devices connected in the 3 ports of our FireBoard then each device can absorb approximately ~400/3 mA. More specifically for the FireBoard 400™ that takes +12V from the power supply, there is a significant augmentation on current.
In this case the total current is around 1,5-2A depending on the power supply size. So in case of 3 devices attached to our board then the max current for each device is approximately 1,5/3 A.
Design Issues
Logic Design
The entire design of Unibrain’s FireBoard 400™ is based on the two main FireWire chip-sets of Texas Instruments:
- the TSB41AB3 IEEE-1394 triple-cable transceiver/arbiter and
- the TSB12LV21B (PCILynx) IEEE-1394 bus to PCI bus
PCB Design
The FireBoard 400™ card is a four-layer printed circuit PCI board. Two of the layers provide the signal interconnections (signal layers) while the remaining two layers provide the required power and ground interconnections (plane layers).
Operating Voltage
12V DC – CAUTION: additional power supply voltage on the Firewire bus should be equal to 12V
Operating Free-air Temperature
0°C to 45°C
Humidity
10% to 90% non condensing.
EMI, EMC testing
FireBoard 400™ has successfully passed the EN 55022 (Emissions Environment) and EN 55024 (Immunity Environment) EMI test procedures. Subsequently, this product is fully CE compliant and assigned with the CE mark.
R : Required, T : Tested
| R | T | Test Description | Standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| X | X | Conducted emissions | EN 55022 |
| X | X | Radiated emissions | EN 55022 |
| X | X | Electrostatic discharges | EN 61000-4-2 |
| X | X | Radiated E.M. fields | EN 61000-4-3 |
| X | X | Fast transient burst (EFT) | EN 61000-4-4 |
Voltage and Current requirements
The FireBoard 400™ is a PCI board plugged into a standard 5V/32-bit PCI socket and has the following voltage and current requirements:
- +12V @ 0,5A (max)
- +5V @ 0,5A (max)
Expansion Headers on the new FireBoard 400™
The new FireBoard 400™ has two expansion headers that provide the full local bus of the TI’s PCILynx2 chip (TSB12LV21B). This is very useful for developers that require extended functionality of this PCIlynx2 chip. In order to use the expansion headers, the developer must prepare his custom add-on board that will include the required specific digital logic.
The pin assignment for each of the headers in described in the following tables:
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Physical Dimensions
The physical dimension of the FireBoard 400™ is 12cm(L)x9cm(H).