GateMate Integrated Logic Analyzer (ILA) deep dive

Cologne FPGA ILA Gateware Design

CNXSoft: This is a guest article by Dave Fohrn, Embedded Software Engineer at Cologne Chip AG, that goes into detail about the company’s open-source integrated logic analyzer (ILA) for GateMate FPGA chips. A field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is a highly flexible integrated circuit in which complex logic circuits can be configured. They are often used as custom computing units in digital circuits because of their ability to process data quickly and in parallel using individually configured circuits. The digital circuits designed specifically for FPGAs are usually developed in a hardware description language such as Verilog or VHDL and are known as gateware. The term “gate” refers to the configurable digital logic units in the FPGA on which the individual gate circuits are implemented. An effective design can accelerate the computing process by strategically utilizing the various resources available in the FPGA, processing data in parallel, and intelligent implementing pipelining. A […]

NiCE5340 SoM packs Nordic nRF5340 MCU, Lattice iCE40 FPGA, and 11 sensors into a tiny 29x16mm form factor

Stefano Viola's NiCE5340 SoM

Stefano Viola’s NiCE5340 SoM is built around a Nordic Semi nRF5340 Bluetooth SoC, an iCE40 FPGA, 11 sensors, a battery charger, and various other peripherals in a 29×16 mm form factor. The nRF5340 used in the SoM is a low-power, dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 SoC with Bluetooth 5.4, Bluetooth LE (BLE), Thread, Zigbee, and other proprietary protocols. Meanwhile, the Lattice iCE40 FPGA features 3520 logic cells, 80 Kbits of embedded Block RAM, I2C, and SPI blocks, and many other features that make it suitable for applications like environmental monitoring, health tracking, and others. Previously, we have written about Unexpected Maker NANOS3, TinyS3, FeatherS3, and ProS3 boards, and ESP32-S3 4G dev board which all fall under the tiny and compact board category but this is the first time we have seen an MCU board with so many features built into a module of that size. Stefano Viola’s NiCE5340 SoM Specification ICs Nordic […]

MYiR Tech launches AMD XC7A100T Artix-7 FPGA system-on-module and development board with PCIe, SFP+ cages, dual GbE

AMD XC7A100T FPGA development board

MYIR MYC-J7A100T is a System-On-Module (SoM) powered by an AMD/Xilinx Artix-7 XC7A100T FPGA with up to 101,440 logic cells, 512MB DDR3 memory, 32MB QSPI FLASH, 32KB EEPROM, DC-DC power management, and other integral circuits in a compact 69.6 x 40mm form factor. The module exposes up to 178 FPGA I/Os, four pairs of GTP high-speed transceiver interfaces, and a JTAG interface through its 260-pin edge connector. MYiR also provides a development board for the MYC-J7A100T module which looks like a PCIe 2.0 card and comes with SFP+ cages, HDMI input and output ports, dual GbE, and a GPIO expansion header. MYIR MYC-J7A100T system-on-module Specifications: FPGA – AMD/Xilinx XC7A100T Artix-7 FPGA (XC7A100T-2FGG484I) with 101,440 logic cells 4,860 Kb of Block RAM 240 DSP slices 8 GTP transceivers capable of reaching speeds up to 6.6Gb/s PCIe Gen2 x4  interface Up to 300x single-ended I/Os System Memory – 512MB DDR3 Storage – 32MB […]

Lattice FeatherWing – An iCE40-powered add-on FPGA board for Adafruit Feather

Lattice FeatherWing An iCE40 Powered Add On Board for Adafruit Feather

Oak Development Technologies has recently announced Lattice FeatherWing – An iCE40-based development board designed to be controlled by Adafruit Feather. Previously we wrote about the IcyBlue Feather V2, a standalone development built around a Lattice Semi iCE5LP4K FPGA. But this FeatherWing board is designed to add functionality to your existing Adafruit Feather board. The Lattice FeatherWing expands your Adafruit Feather with a Lattice iCE5LP4K FPGA. It connects and gets programmed over SPI so you can use all the FPGA’s GPIO pins through the header blocks. There’s also a built-in RGB LED directly connected to the FPGA’s open-drain pins, for visual feedback. Previously, we have written about many Lattice Semi FPGA-based development boards, such as the tinyVision.ai Pico-Ice board, Silicon Witchery S1, and ULX3S Education Board. Feel free to check those out if you want a standalone FPGA board. FPGA – Lattice Semi iCE40 Family ICE5LP4K-SG48ITR Logic Cells – Approximately 3520 logic cells Memory – 80 Kbits […]

IcyBlue Feather V2 board features Lattice Semi iCE5LP4K FPGA in Adafruit Feather form factor

IcyBlue Feather V2 FPGA Bo

The IcyBlue Feather V2 from Oak Development Technologies is a powerful and compact dev board that combines the Lattice Semi iCE5LP4K FPGA with the Adafruit Feather form factor. This unique combination allows this FPGA board to be compatible with the Adafruit FeatherWings ecosystem, providing functionalities such as additional GPIOs, displays, connectivity modules, and more. This new board features a USB-C port for powering and programming the FPGA. Additionally, it features two hardware I2C and SPI blocks that do not consume FPGA resources while operating. The board also includes 22 accessible GPIOs, a bright RGB LED for status indication, and two user-programmable LEDs. Previously, we have discussed many similar tiny FPGA-based development boards, such as the Lattice Semi MachXO2 FPGA, tinyVision.ai Pico-Ice board, Silicon Witchery S1, and ULX3S Education Board. Feel free to explore these if you are looking for similar options. IcyBlue Feather V2 Specification FPGA – Lattice Semi iCE40 […]

Intel Agilex 5 SoC FPGA embedded SoM targets 5G equipment, 100GbE networking, Edge AI/ML applications

Hitex eSOM5C-Ex

Hitek Systems eSOM5C-Ex is a compact embedded System-on-Module (SOM) based on the mid-range Intel Agilex 5 SoC FPGA E-Series and a pin-to-pin compatible with the company’s earlier eSOM7C-xF based on the Agilex 7 FPGA F-Series. The module exposes all I/Os, including up to 24 transceivers, through the same 400-pin high-density connector found in the Agilex 7 FPGA-powered eSOM7-xF and the upcoming Agilex 5 FPGA D-Series SOM that will allow flexibility from 100K to 2.7 million logic elements (LEs) for the whole product range. Hitek eSOM5C-Ex specifications: SoC FPGA – Intel Agilex 5 E-series group A and Group B FPGAs in B32 package Supported variants: A5E065A/B, A5E043A/B and A5E043A/B Hard Processing System (HPS) – Dual-core Cortex-A76 and dual-core Cortex-A55 FPGA Up to 656,080 Logic elements 24 x transceivers up to 28Gbps System Memory Up to 2x 8GB LPDDR4 for FPGA 2 or 4GB DDR4 for HPS Storage – 32GB eMMC flash, […]

Efinix Titanium Ti375 FPGA offers quad-core hardened RISC-V block, PCIe Gen 4, 10GbE

Efinix Titanium Ti375 RISC-V FPGA SoC

Efinix Titanium Ti375 SoC combines high-density, low-power Quantum compute fabric with a quad-core hardened 32-bit RISC-V block and features a LPDDR4 DRAM controller, a MIPI D-PHY for displays or cameras, and 16 Gbps transceivers enabling PCIe Gen 4 and 10GbE interfaces. The Titanium Ti375 also comes with 370K logic elements, 1.344 DSP blocks, 2,688 10-Kbit SRAM blocks, and 27,53 Mbits embedded memory, as well as DSP blocks optimized for computing and AI workloads, and XLR (eXchangeable Logic and Routing) cells for logic and routing. Efinix Titanium Ti375 specifications: FPGA compute fabric 370,137 logic elements (LEs) 362,880 eXchangeable Logic and Routing (XLR) cells 27,53 Mbits embedded memory 2,688 10-Kbit SRAM blocks 1,344 embedded DSP blocks for multiplication, addition, subtraction, accumulation, and up to 15-bit variable-right-shifting Memory – 10-kbit high-speed, embedded SRAM, configurable as single-port RAM, simple dual-port RAM, true dual-port RAM, or ROM FPGA interface blocks 32-bit quad-core hardened RISC-V block […]

Trenz Electronic TE0950-03-EGBE21A – An AMD Versal AI Edge VE2302 SoC FPGA evaluation board

AMD Versal AI Edge Evalboard with VE2302 SoC

Trenz Electronic recently announced the TE0950-03-EGBE21A an evaluation board with AMD Versal AI Edge XCVE2302-1LSESFVA784 SoC FPGA. This board features 8 GB of DDR4 SDRAM and 128 MB of SPI Flash (as the primary boot option), a microSD card slot, a 32 GB eMMC flash (secondary boot), and an EEPROM with a MAC address. Additionally, the board supports a range of VE-series devices, such as VE2002, VE2102, VE2202, VE2302, and VM1102, enhancing its application versatility. The AMD Versal is a family of adaptive compute acceleration platforms (ACAPs) designed by AMD. Following its acquisition of Xilinx, it integrates CPU, GPU, and FPGA technologies along with dedicated software support to create a highly flexible development environment. Trenz Electronic VE2302 Evaluation Board Specifications: SoC – AMD Versal AI Edge XCVE2302-1LSESFVA784, A784 package, compatible with multiple VE-series devices RAM – 8 GB DDR4 SDRAM Storage 128 MB SPI Flash (primary boot option) MicroSD card […]

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