That's a nice idea. I suspect they must really be trying to keep the BOM cost down though.
I was struck by just how little there is on that board other than the Spartan-6 FPGA; which looks to be one of the smallest versions of what is now a 10 year old design.
There's one SOP/SOIC-8 package by the FPGA which I assume is configuration flash. One 50MHz crystal near to that. Some power regulation on the right-hand side of the board. One Alliance SRAM package. And that's it other than the passives and connectors!
I guess it's possible there's some interesting stuff on the other side but I'm doubting it.
EDIT: Wow I see they are selling this for GBP 300; which is over USD 400. You really aren't paying for the hardware; this has less content than a USD 70 dev board.
I was struck by just how little there is on that board other than the Spartan-6 FPGA; which looks to be one of the smallest versions of what is now a 10 year old design.
There's one SOP/SOIC-8 package by the FPGA which I assume is configuration flash. One 50MHz crystal near to that. Some power regulation on the right-hand side of the board. One Alliance SRAM package. And that's it other than the passives and connectors!
I guess it's possible there's some interesting stuff on the other side but I'm doubting it.
EDIT: Wow I see they are selling this for GBP 300; which is over USD 400. You really aren't paying for the hardware; this has less content than a USD 70 dev board.