IceZero Lattice iCE40 FPGA Board is Designed for Raspberry Pi Zero

Yesterday, we reported about Olimex’s open source hardware iCE40HX8K-EVB board with a Lattice iCE40 (HX8K) FPGA, and today, another iCE40 FPGA board, also open source hardware, appeared in my news feed with Trenz Electronic’s IceZero board specifically designed to be programmed using a Raspberry Pi Zero board.

Click to Enlarge

IceZero board specifications:

  • FPGA – Lattice ICE40HX4K with 3520 logic gates, and 80 Kbit memory
  • Storage – SPI Flash for FPGA self-configuration
  • Misc – 3x User LEDs;  User Clock: 100 MHz
  • Expansion – 4x unpopulated PMOD Connectors; 40-pin Raspberry Pi female header
  • Dimensions – 56 x 30.5mm (Raspberry Pi HAT Compatible)

The board is supported by icoTC open source FPGA toolchain for Windows and Linux, which you can use in Raspberry Pi Zero (W), and other RPi board with a 40-pin header running Raspbian, as explained in that simple example in Github. Trenz electronic only shared part of the documentation, but you’ll find everything on a blog post on Black Mesa Labs with the design files licensed with the CERN Open Hardware License v1.2, and more technical details about the board.

Block Diagram with Raspberry Pi

Trenz Electronic sells IceZero board for 34 Euros excluding VAT and shipping, but in case you’d like to make it yourself, you can also order the bare PCB on OSH Park.

Share this:

Support CNX Software! Donate via cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or purchase goods on Amazon or Aliexpress

ROCK Pi 4C Plus
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
The comment form collects your name, email and content to allow us keep track of the comments placed on the website. Please read and accept our website Terms and Privacy Policy to post a comment.
4 Comments
oldest
newest
Jim st
Jim st
6 years ago

I ordered two, hope to pull off a projet I’ve got in mind.

Shipping got ridiculous but I bought anyway.

Drone
Drone
6 years ago

So this is the “Tutorial”?

https://github.com/cliffordwolf/icotools/tree/master/examples/icezero

Pffft, there’s barely anything there, and what is there is incomplete (Step 4, which directory? Where?)

Kevin Hubbard
6 years ago

@Drone
Check out example design at https://blackmesalabs.wordpress.com/2017/07/04/icezero-fpga-hat-for-raspberrypi-servo-example/ This is a GPIO+PWM example ( Verilog + Bitfile ) and Python for controlling 32 GPIO pins as inputs, outputs, or PWM controlled outputs ( for servos, etc ). SUMP2 Logic Analyzer is also available for IceZero from BML.

John Ayres
John Ayres
6 years ago

I tried to buy this and the real price was well over 100 euro?? For some companies you need to actually try to buy before you know what the price is.

Khadas VIM4 SBC