[Cryptech Tech] Alpha layout done (not a joke)

[Peter Stuge]

Pavel Shatov wrote:
> > the board may need its own USB connectors because VBUS is missing
> > on the header.
> 
> Ouch, you're right. VBUS is not there, Fredrik and I overlooked it
> and only exposed 3.3V through the header, sorry.

I noticed it in the schematic and mentioned it to Fredrik but I think
it was already too late by then. And as he said, it's not a big
disaster, only another connector. :)

I'll add a small LDO too then, so that the board can work standalone,
and to be sure that nothing happens to the Alpha I'll add dual-supply
buffers for the UARTs. Maybe overkill, but I don't want to break any
Alphas.


Pavel Shatov wrote:
> Are there suitable processors, that have at least two USB and two UART 
> interfaces? I mean, can we design dual-channel transceiver with only one 
> physical processor?

I've only seen two USB in larger processors - around the Alpha STM32
size, maybe one size down. That's a bit heavy for the job.

There are small processors with one USB and >=2 UARTs and I was
considering one of those, but I thought that it's better to
keep data and management two completely separate paths.

Question is whether to make a single board or a dual board. Dual
means better PCB area utilization, so I tend to do that unless
there's a different opinion favoring the single board flexibility.


Thanks

//Peter