
Lattice's $24.99 FPGA Evaluation Kit - ironchief
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1319267
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mafuyu
It's great that Lattice is coming out with even cheaper FPGA dev board
options. The bare-bones student dev kits from Altera and Xilinx are typically
around $70, but $25 is a low enough price for hobbyists and beginners to begin
experimenting as well.

I'm not too sure about the USB stick form factor, though. I have Texas
Instrument's F2013 dev board[0], which is also a USB stick-type device. It's
adorable; it's cute; and it has everything you need on-board (both the
emulator and target), but you end up not being able to do anything very useful
with it (unless you get very creative[1]). Hack-A-Day seems to agree[2].

Part of the reason this eval board is so cheap is that most FPGA evaluation
boards have a bunch of peripherals that you can toy around with. My worry is
that the lack of peripherals, low number of I/O pins, and the USB form factor
might work against the product. That said, it does have an IrDA transceiver,
which should enable some cool demos like acting as a TV remote.

If you're looking for a cheap FPGA board to use as part of a greater project,
take a look at Lattice's iCE40-HX8K Breakout Board[3]. It's double the price,
but it has all the basics and has tons of I/O to use. You can see Mike from
mikeselectricstuff use it in his iPod Nano LCD project here:
[http://youtu.be/IIR1Bw8T_vM](http://youtu.be/IIR1Bw8T_vM) .

[0]:
[http://www.latticesemi.com/en/Products/DevelopmentBoardsAndK...](http://www.latticesemi.com/en/Products/DevelopmentBoardsAndKits/iCE40HX8KBreakoutBoard.aspx)

[1]: [http://forum.43oh.com/topic/248-ezprobe-ez430-based-logic-
pr...](http://forum.43oh.com/topic/248-ezprobe-ez430-based-logic-probe/)

[2]: [http://hackaday.com/2011/01/30/hands-on-with-
ez430-f2013/](http://hackaday.com/2011/01/30/hands-on-with-ez430-f2013/)

[3]:
[http://www.latticesemi.com/en/Products/DevelopmentBoardsAndK...](http://www.latticesemi.com/en/Products/DevelopmentBoardsAndKit/iCE40HX8KBreakoutBoard.aspx)

~~~
Danieru
Just a heads up, the fourth link [3] is broken.

~~~
mafuyu
Oops, thanks. The correct link should be:
[http://www.latticesemi.com/en/Products/DevelopmentBoardsAndK...](http://www.latticesemi.com/en/Products/DevelopmentBoardsAndKits/iCE40HX8KBreakoutBoard.aspx)

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jws
Specs:

    
    
      • 1280 Four input LUT logic cells
      • 64Kbit of RAM
      • 32Mbit flash
      • a PLL
      • Two sets of 8 digital I/O pins
      • One Pmod connector (2x6 0.10" socket, some sort of digital interface)
      • 5 LEDs
      • An IrDA transceiver
      • USB dongle form factor, programmed from USB, can look like a UART from FPGA to PC
    

The design software appears to only function on the Windows operating system.

~~~
sliverstorm
Windows is par for the course. If you want to develop for FPGAs, I suggest you
accept Windows, at least to start with.

Xilinx can run on Linux and all that, but Windows is the path of least
resistance, and FPGAs will give you enough trouble by themselves!

~~~
nraynaud
I don't think HN is really the place to accept this kind of status quo. We're
not here to maintain a tradition. Somehow, I would be very glad that someone
here break this barrier (not me, I'm trying to do that for the CNC world).

~~~
sounds
Our FPGA work is all done on Linux, but we're coming from the HPUX world.
We've used Xilinx and Altera without any problems to speak of.

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salgernon
Does anyone have any experience with this tool chain? Would this be a good way
to - from a hobbiest standpoint- get started with fpga and logic synthesis?

~~~
zerohp
My first FPGA was a cheap Lattice kit and I never fully wrapped my head around
their toolchain (Diamond). It has everything you need but the workflow and UI
made it hard for me as a beginner. I also found the documentation and
tutorials to be lacking.

Later, I started using an Altera FPGA for my hobby projects and I'm much
happier with their software. I am beginning a research project using Xilinx
(ISE) now. I'm not sure if its better than Quartus, but its better than
Diamond.

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slug
Nice, they have both Windows and Linux support. I got a Papilio Pro some time
ago and it's fun to play with. There's also a few other boards based on the
same Spartan 6 series with more gates/ram and cheaper.

~~~
sexmonad
Can you list some of the boards that are both cheaper and more capable?

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xellisx
I actually have one of these on my desk. The chain is a bit of a task to
install. The licencing is kind of weird on it. The chain it self isn't bad to
work with. I just with they would give more resources and tutorials for it.
They give you a blinking LED example and send you off on your way...

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kanwisher
Any suggestions of starter FPGA projects for someone who is a programmer but
wants to get into FPGAs?

~~~
s_baby
Build state-machines or cpu using logic gates in logisim. It sounds complex
but there are only a handful of primitives you have to understand. Learning
that FPGA conditionals are equivalent to multiplexers is much easier to learn
when you make one by hand.

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ioseph
I'm interested in doing some audio work on fpga. At a minimum this requires a
decent dac/adc. Can anyone recommend a cheap board that provides this onboard?
Seems most kits with audio also contain video and got for around $400 AUD

~~~
regularfry
I'm not going to register just to check out prices, but a quick google landed
me at
[http://www.fpga.biz/product_info.php?products_id=87](http://www.fpga.biz/product_info.php?products_id=87).
Doesn't look like it'll be cheap, though - anyone know how much this is?

EDIT TO ADD: A Papilio Pro plus an audio wing looks like it comes out at
£77.80, ex VAT.

~~~
fhars
If you want it for (hopefully) christmas, there is also the Papilio Duo
Kickstarter: [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/13588168/papilio-duo-
dr...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/13588168/papilio-duo-drag-and-
drop-fpga-circuit-lab-for-mak)

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tylerlh
Went to order one, but they want $20 for regular ground shipping.

May as well sell it for $45 and ship it for free. At least then I'd be less
likely to whine about it.

~~~
ahoodlum
Order from DigiKey[0] and shipping is more reasonable (A few bucks for
ground).

[0] [http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/ICE40HX1K-STICK-
EVN...](http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/ICE40HX1K-STICK-
EVN/220-2656-ND/4289604)

~~~
tylerlh
Nice! Thanks for the tip.

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johansch
The article is nearly a year old.

