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.
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.
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.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
