Maximum Bitrate through Flat Ribbon cable

Thread Starter

scubasteve_911

Joined Dec 27, 2007
1,203
Hello everyone,

Does anyone know off-hand the maximum bitrate through ribbon cable? I am getting a virtex2 pro board to play around with and it has two sets of connectors: low-speed headers, and a high-speed hirose fx2 connector. Obviously, the high-speed connectors would be the way to go, but there are two things getting in my way. First of all, they do not come with cables for it. So, after checking out digikey, it will cost 30$ in parts to make the cable, assuming that I am able to get ahold of a 100-pin 1.27mm/0.05" pitch flat ribbon cable.

Would the low-speed headers be good to about 1.6Mbit/sec?

Steve
 

SgtWookie

Joined Jul 17, 2007
22,230
I think the ATA interface spec calls for alternating grounds/signals, but I can't remember offhand.

What kind of bandwidth you can get through ribbon cable really depends upon the length of the cable, and what kinds of signals you're going to be sending through it.

Impedance matching becomes critical at higher speeds.
 

Thread Starter

scubasteve_911

Joined Dec 27, 2007
1,203
Thanks guys. I will be running gnd-signal pairs through the cables and will only be doing about a 12" run with them. The maximum I plan to send 1.6Mb/s.

If the original ata spec is 3Mb/s, then I think I should be fine. Anyone think is this okay/bad?

Steve
 
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