Introduction

I always told that the Pano Logic G2 Spartan-6 LX150 FPGA was not supported by a free Xilinx ISE version. That apparently changed in February 2018 with the release of Xilinx ISE 14.7 for Windows 10.

Suddenly, the Pano Logic G2 becomes very interesting: the FPGA is huge by hobby standards, and the devices are dirt cheap on eBay. It also helps that I once accidentally bought 25 of them ($75 for all, including shipping!) thinking they were G1 devices. :-)

So with out further ado, let’s disassemble those things and see what’s inside!

Disassembly

By modern electronics standards (Apple…), these things are a breeze to take apart. All you need is a screw driver, and a inverted Allen key to remove the DVI connector screws.

The Pano G2 has the following ports:

  • DVI
  • HDMI-micro
  • Audio (input and output)
  • 4 USB ports
  • Ethernet

Step 1

4 regular screws, 2 VGA inverted hex screws:

Step 2

Once removed, slide the bottom grill out. The bottom grill has a loudspeaker that’s also attached to the motherboard. So unplug that audio connector once your feel some resistance.

Step 3

Once the botton grill is removed, you should be able to slide out the rubber siding. There are now 7 screws left. 3 on the auxiliary PCB (which has the DVI connector.) 3 on the main motherboard.

Step 4

All main components exposed!

Step 5

Top of auxiliary PCB. It has a Chrontel chip to drive DVI.

Step 6

Bottom of auxiliary PCB.

Step 7

Top of main motherboard. There’s no need to remove the heatsinks of the FPGA if you already knows what’s underneath anyway.

Step 8

But I wanted to be able to see all components in detail…

Step 9

Bottom of the motherboard PCB. Contrary to the Pano G1, there are a fair number of active components here.

Step 10

Done! That was the easy part. :-)