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October 16, 2025October 16, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

$4 Shrike-lite FPGA board combines 1120 LUTs Renesas ForgeFPGA with Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU

Shrike Lite Renesas ForgeFPGA RP2040 board

Shrike-lite is an ultra-cheap FPGA board based on a 1120 LUTs Renesas ForgeFPGA device (SLG47910V) and also equipped with a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller. The board also features a USB-C port for power and programming, two 18-pin headers and a 12-pin PMOD-compatible header for I/Os, as well as Boot and Reset buttons, but not much else since it’s designed as a minimal development board. Shrike-lite and Shrike boards specifications: FPGA – Renesas ForgeFPGA (SLG47910V,1120 LUTs) 1120 5-bit LUTs 1120 DFFs 5 kb distributed memory 32 kb BRAM Configurable through NVM and/or SPI interface Package – STQFN-24 MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ 125 MHz with 264KB SRAM FPGA/ MCU interface – 6-bit high-speed bridge Storage – QSPI flash for configuration and storage USB – USB Type-C for programming & power Expansion 2x 18-pin headers for RP2040 and ForgeFPGA’s I/Os 12-pin PMOD compatible header Misc Boot and Reset buttons […]

July 27, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Top 10 Programming Languages in 2016 for Embedded Software Development

IEEE Spectrum has published a list of the top programming languages in 2016 for Web, Mobile, Enterprise, and Embedded sectors with rankings created by weighting and combining 12 metrics from 10 sources. So I thought it would be fun to have a look at the top 10 of languages used for embedded software, and the results are: As expected, C and C++ are at the top, but I’m quite surprised that “Arduino” is now considered a programming language, as it is simply based on C/C++. When I worked as an embedded software engineer a few years ago, I personally used C, and Assembly, and to a lesser extend C++ and VHDL. I only recently started to play with Arduino code, and while I’ve heard of most other languages in the list, it’s the first time I’ve ever seen Ladder Logic, probably because it’s designed to program PLCs in industrial control […]

December 22, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Spartixed is a $34 FPGA Board Based on Xilinx Spartan 6 (Crowdfunding)

Spartixed is another low cost FPGA board launched on Kickstarter, powered by Xilinx Spartan 6 LX4 FPGA, with a 7-segment display, some headers and buttons, and targeting people who want to learn VHDL/Verilog on the cheap. Spartixed board specifications: FPGA – Xilinx Spartan 6 LX4 FPGA (exact part not disclosed) Storage – 16 Mbit flash for program, I2C or SPI EEPROM Display – 3 digit 7- Segment Display USB – 1x micro USB port for power and debugging Expansion – 26-pin unpopulated header, optional SPI Bus A/D Converter Debugging – 14-pin JTAG connector, UARt port via USB connector Misc – 3x push button switches, 8 slide switches for input, 2x user LEDs, 1x power LED, 1x config. ready LED. Power – 5V via Micro USB Connector or 5 to 12 V via external power supply. Dimensions – N/A You can follow the project via its blog, and already access some […]