Parallella Community

Dear all,

The quick started guide step 3 says
If you were shipped a board before March 1st, 2014, then you must use a conforming powered USB hub.
If you were shipped a board before July 10th, 2014 then you must use a fan with the board. (we do still recommend a fan for all customers, especially if you are going to push the performance of the board)

How do I know when my parallella shipped?
Thanks.

Older Parallellas only had a single, small heatsink for the Zynq, and require a fan (otherwise they'll overheat).
Newer Parallellas have a big, full-size heatsink, for which a fan is highly recommended.

I am not up-to-date on the USB situation. But if your USB hub was not operating strictly according to the standard (and many products are not), then you risked frying some components on the Parallella. I am not sure what was changed in between (my best guess is probably some protection circuitry). Generally, USB support has been flaky, but I don't know if it is better now - we avoid using USB on our Parallellas.