FPGA evaluation kits

FPGA evaluation kits
Lattice ice40 iCEstick	Embedded Micro Mojo

I got a pair of FPGA evaluation kits, thanks to Hack Manhattan
holding affordable workshops and the kindness of John A Connor.

The FPGA (field programmable Gate Array) is an amazing versatile device.
Instead of breadboarding thousands of logic gates,
the chip contains thousands (or millions) of logic elements that are "wired up" by programming.

FPGAs are now mainstream high performance computing devices, along with CPUs and GPUs.
Financial institutions use FPGAs integrated into the NIC (Network Interface Cards)
to process network traffic BEFORE hitting the computer's CPU or main memory
for FPGA-Based Acceleration for High-Frequency Trading.

2020 update: CPU with tightly coupled FPGA is the latest-and-greatest thing.
That's why Intel acquired Altera and AMD acquired Xilinx for integrated CPU & GPU & FPGA
Microchip's PolarFire is a Multi-Core RISC-V SoC FPGA.
The PolarFire SoC FPGA Icicle kit is a low-cost development platform running Linux.

Meet The Family (of logic arrays)

The FPGA is the latest technology for programmable logic devices.
Citing wikipedia: A programmable logic device (PLD) is

an electronic component used to build reconfigurable digital circuits.
Unlike a logic gate, which has a fixed function, a PLD has an undefined function at the time of manufacture.
Before the PLD can be used in a circuit it must be programmed, that is, reconfigured.

Previous technologies for implementing programmable logic devices (PLD) are

PLA: Programmable Logic Array
PAL: Programmable Array Logic
GAL: Generic Array Logic
CPLD: Complex Programmable Logic Device
a programmable logic device with complexity between that of PALs and FPGAs, and architectural features of both.

Related to Programmable Logic Devices (PLD) are logic devices that cannot be reprogrammed.
They are wired during the manufacturing process

An ASIC: Application specific integrated circuit
is an integrated circuit (IC) customized for a particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use.
A gate array or uncommitted logic array (ULA)
is an approach to the design and manufacture of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs),
using a prefabricated chip with active devices like NAND-gates,
that are later interconnected according to a custom order by adding metal layers in the factory.

Lattice ice40 iCEstick Evaluation Kit

Lattice ice40 iCEstick Evaluation Kit (also from Mouser).

Hack Manhattan held a wonderful workshop that overcame my fears of learning FPGAs
with one that is cheap and ready to use with Linux open source tools.
Just type "make" and it's all done!
(The price is now $50, introductory price was $25).
What's inside:

iCE40HX-1k FPGA datasheet (pdf)
HX1K:
- 1,280 Logic Cells (LUT + Flip-Flop)
- 16 RAM4K Memory Blocks
- 64K RAM4K RAM bits
- 1 Phase-Locked Loop (PLL)
- 95 Maximum Programmable I/O Pins
Vishay TFDU4101 IrDA transceiver
Micron 32 Mbit N25Q32 SPI flash
Discera 12 Mhz MEMS oscillator
USB for power, programming
Five user LEDs
16 LVCMOS/LVTTL (3.3 V) digital I/O connections on 0.1" through-hole connections
open source tools & design files:
- Project IceStorm is a fully open source Verilog-to-Bitstream flow for iCE40 FPGAs
- slides documenting Project IceStorm: the Free and Open Source Verilog-to-Bitstream Flow for iCE40 FPGAs (pdf)
- Icarus Verilog is a Verilog simulation and synthesis tool
- GTKWAVE - A VCD waveform viewer based on the GTK library for logic-analyzer like timing diagrams
- VP TRACE
- PicoRV32: a size-optimized RISC-V core on the Lattice FPGA
- SUMP2: make it a 96 MSPS Logic Analyzer
support:
- dangerousprototypes.com blog
- Lattice Semi Design Resources: IP and Reference Designs, Application Notes …
videos:
- EEVblog Guest Video: Joel from OpenTechLab reviews and experiments the IcoBoard
  The icoBOARD is Lattice iCE40 FPGA IO board for the RaspberryPi with Open Source tool-chain.
- OpenTechLab: Open Source FPGA Synthesis with the icoBoard - part 2
- Show Notes: Open Source FPGA Synthesis with the icoBoard

The Embedded Micro Mojo FPGA development board

a gift from John A Connor:
the Mojo FPGA with 8x16 color LED

The Embedded Micro Mojo FPGA development board includes

Xilinx Spartan 6 XC6SLX9 FPGA
84 digital IO pins
8 analog inputs
8 general purpose LEDs
1 reset button
1 LED to show when the FPGA is correctly configured
On board voltage regulation that can handle 4.8V - 12V (recommended input 5V)
A microcontroller (ATmega32U4) used for configuring the FPGA, USB communications, and reading the analog pins
On board flash memory to store the FPGA configuration file

The microcontroller comes with Arduino compatible bootloader
which will allow you to install future upgrades to the firmware without having to buy a programmer.
It also allows you to write your own code to run on the microcontroller using the Arduino IDE .

John A Connor posted his work on github

Mojo simple visualizer
Straightforward example for setting individual LEDs on the Mojo FPGA visualizer shield.
I recently acquired a Mojo FPGA and visualizer shield.
I'm new to this kind of thing, and everything is strange is confusing.
It took me literally days to figure out how to individually address the LEDs.
If anyone else is having similar difficulties, hopefully this will help.
FPGA Utils
A small collection of utilities to aid in FPGA development

The main board's schematic

The Embedded Micro Clock/Visualizer Shield includes

2: 8x8 RGB LED Matricies with diffused lenses
DS3234 RTC (Real-Time Clock) with 256 bytes of battery backed SRAM
TEMT6000 Light sensor
ADMP421 Microphone
12mm coin cell battery to backup the RTC
Buzzer
3 - Push buttons

Driving the LED array is strange because there is no controller (see the schematic)
There are 16 transistors: one to each anode (row) of the 8x8 RGB LED matrix.
That means each array's 8: RGB LED cathodes are driven directly by the FPGA
for 8 pixels x 3 (RGB) x 2 modules = 48 leds per row!