FPGA boards under $100

Nowadays you can find many low-cost microcontroller devboards (starting from just few dollars/euros). More recently, we’ve seen ARM Cortex kits for $10-$50, the flowering of the whole Arduino ecosystem, and of course, the Raspberry Pi. It’s microcontroller heaven with very many dev boards available. You you want more performance, there is a wide selection of Linux friendly single board computers in around $35 to $200 range.

What do you want to try next after microcontroller dev boards? Maybe FPGA. A field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is an integrated circuit designed to be configured by a customer or a designer after manufacturing. FPGAs contain programmable logic components called “logic blocks”, and a hierarchy of reconfigurable interconnects that allow the blocks to be “wired together” – somewhat like many (changeable) logic gates that can be inter-wired in (many) different configurations. Logic blocks can be configured to perform complex combinational functions, or merely simple logic gates like AND and XOR.

Those of us wanting a cheap “in” to the FPGA world have been less lucky than developers looking for microcontroller dev boards. FPGA boards under $100: Introduction article is indicting that the times, they are a changin’. Many FPGA devkits, from both chipmakers and third parties, have broken – or downright shattered – the $100 barrier, opening the door to low-cost FPGA prototyping, education, hobby projects, and so on. FPGA boards under $100: Introduction article offers a good overview of what is available.

Here are some interesting additions to the listed boards:

Hacklet 28 – Programmable Logic Hacks posting tells about Arduino-Compatible FPGA Shield. The shield features a Xilinx Spartan 6 FPGA and is available in The Hackaday Store. It has the needed regulators and level shifters. The price is $69.97. Not sure where to start? Check out  Spartan-6 FPGA Hello World! that uses Xilinx’s free tool chain to getting a “hello world” led blinker running!

Hacklet 28 – Programmable Logic Hacks posting also mentions Chameleon. Chameleon is an Arduino compatible FPGA board with a Xilinx Spartan 3A FPGA on-board. The Chameleon Arduino-compatible shield board was designed to support two general application areas: (1) soft-core processors, and (2) intelligent serial communications interface.

Cheap FPGA-based HDMI Experimenting Board project is designing a (relatively) cheap little board for experimenting with HDMI using a Spartan-6 FPGA.

432 Comments

  1. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Implementing Control Algorithms with Pynq
    The Xilinx Pynq framework enables us to use Python and Jupyter notebooks with FPGA designs.
    https://www.hackster.io/adam-taylor/implementing-control-algorithms-with-pynq-b133ba

    Reply
  2. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Trends In FPGA Verification Effort And Adoption: The 2018 Wilson Research Group Functional Verification Study
    FPGAs are growing more complex, but are verification techniques keeping up?
    https://semiengineering.com/trends-in-fpga-verification-effort-and-adoption-the-2018-wilson-research-group-functional-verification-study/

    Reply
  3. Tomi Engdahl says:

    An HDMI Input For A Laptop Screen, Minus Laptop
    https://hackaday.com/2019/03/14/an-hdmi-input-for-laptop-screen-minus-laptop/

    The lack of HDMI inputs on almost all laptops is a huge drawback for anyone who wants to easily play a video game on the road, for example. As to why no manufacturers offer this piece of convenience when we all have easy access to a working screen of this size, perhaps no one can say. On the other hand, if you want to ditch the rest of the computer, you can make use of the laptop screen for whatever you want.

    Driving a Laptop LCD using an FPGA
    https://www.element14.com/community/groups/fpga-group/blog/2019/03/04/driving-a-laptop-lcd-using-an-fpga

    Reply
  4. Tomi Engdahl says:

    FPGA NES Looks Sharp On Perfboard
    https://hackaday.com/2019/03/18/fpga-nes-looks-sharp-on-perfboard/

    Spartan Mini FPGA handheld NES
    A handheld FPGA based NES which utilizes the Spartan 6 FPGA by Xilinx.
    https://hackaday.io/project/77110-spartan-mini-fpga-handheld-nes

    Reply
  5. Tomi Engdahl says:

    An FPGA Drives This Antique LCD Screen
    https://hackaday.com/2019/03/20/an-fpga-drives-this-antique-lcd-screen/

    If you’re reading this article on a desktop or laptop computer, you’re probably staring at millions of pixels on a TFT LCD display. TFT became a dominant technology due to its picture quality and fast response times, but it’s not the only way to build an LCD. There are cheaper technologies, such as STN and its color variant, CSTN. They’re rarely used nowadays, but [Wenting Zhang] had one lying around and wanted to take a crack at driving it.

    CSTroN – CSTN LCD monitor
    https://hackaday.io/project/160738-cstron-cstn-lcd-monitor

    What if TFT LCD is never invented? Here is the CSTN LCD monitor.

    Reply
  6. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Building Custom SDSoC Platform with PetaLinux
    https://www.hackster.io/anujvaishnav20/building-custom-sdsoc-platform-with-petalinux-268bfd

    This tutorial will show how to add your own custom IP to SDSoC system and have it integrated with PetaLinux.

    Reply
  7. Tomi Engdahl says:

    PYNQ Edition! Interfacing with Pmods, Arduino and Raspberry Pi
    https://blog.hackster.io/pynq-edition-interfacing-with-pmods-arduino-and-raspberry-pi-61676f9f0fab

    In this edition, we are going to examine what the PYNQ Input / Output Processor (IOP) is and how we can use it in Python from the Jupyter environment. If you are not familiar with the PYNQ framework, the IOP allows us to exploit the Arduino, Pmod and Raspberry Pi interfaces on the PYNQ Z2 board.

    Reply
  8. Tomi Engdahl says:

    DeFireAnt: An Efinix-Based FPGA Dev Board That’s Breadboard Friendly
    https://blog.hackster.io/fireant-an-efinix-based-fpga-dev-board-thats-breadboard-friendly-23f6fb6e5371

    A new FPGA board has been spotted on Crowd Supply that looks to launch in the coming weeks and is touted as being the first Efinix authorized third-party development board for makers and hardware designers. The FireAnt is thumb-sized, breadboard-friendly, and packs Efinix’s Trion T8 FPGA

    https://www.crowdsupply.com/xips-technology/fireant

    Reply
  9. Tomi Engdahl says:

    WebFPGA: A Cloud-Based Development Environment for Compatible FPGA Boards
    https://blog.hackster.io/webfpga-a-cloud-based-development-environment-for-compatible-fpga-boards-778018723bc9

    UCLA Engineer Ryan Jacobs has designed a cloud-based development platform for FPGAs known as WebFPGA, which allows users to rapidly program compatible FPGA boards using a toolchain that incorporates the WebUSB API. All that’s needed for programming is a modern browser, such as Chrome or Opera

    The WebFPGA platform includes a standalone “FPGA device” development board outfitted with a Lattice iCE40UP5K

    Jacobs is currently crowdfunding the WebFPGA board on Kickstarter with pledges starting at $29 , and $59

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanmjacobs/webfpga-rapid-fpga-development-system

    Reply
  10. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Design Flow for a Custom FPGA Board in Vivado and PetaLinux
    https://blog.hackster.io/design-flow-for-a-custom-fpga-board-in-vivado-and-petalinux-b998c0b4f9f7

    A little while back, a Raspberry Pi form factor FPGA board called the ZynqBerry caught my eye and I spent some time with it to bring it up as a ready-to-go tool in my arsenal of development boards.

    Reply
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  12. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Sipeed Teases Tang Nano Sub-$5 FPGA Development Board with On-Board Programmer
    https://www.hackster.io/news/sipeed-teases-tang-nano-sub-5-fpga-development-board-with-on-board-programmer-70eed63e5725?b4681a619cf018eed690452faeb0e94f

    Embedded computing specialist Sipeed has announced final specifications for an ultra-low-cost field-programmable gate array (FPGA) development board, the Tang Nano, which it claims will cost under $5.

    it did admit to the use of the “cheapest” Gowin Semiconductor 48-pin FPGA — meaning the GW1N-1 LittleBee family, based on a 55nm low-power process node and measuring just 2.4×2.3mm.

    offering 1,152 four-input lookup tables (LUT4s), 72Kb static RAM (SRAM), 64Mb pseudo-static RAM (PSRAM), an on-board RGB LED, 40-pin RGB LCD display interface, and on-board programmer with USB Type-C connectivity – and a final price of under $5.

    Reply
  13. Tomi Engdahl says:

    “The Thing”: A Homemade FPGA Board
    https://hackaday.com/2019/10/17/the-thing-a-homemade-fpga-board/

    The Thing is an unassuming name for an ambitious project to build an FPGA board from easy to find components.

    The project stems from an earlier build submitted to the 2018 Hackaday Prize by [Just4Fun] where two dev boards – an STM32-based Arduino and an Altera MAX II CPLD board – were combined with the Arduino used as a stimulus generator for the CPLD. This way, the Arduino IDE, interfaced through USB, can be used for programming the CPLD.

    “The Thing”: FPGA + STM32
    An homemade FPGA board with an Arduino STM32, “Multicomp” compatible
    https://hackaday.io/project/163683-the-thing-fpga-stm32

    Reply
  14. Tomi Engdahl says:

    FPGA design for Software Engineers
    https://www.walknsqualk.com/post/014-tiny-fpga-bx/

    Starting with FPGAs

    Reply
  15. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Compiling a CPU, in a cheap FPGA board
    https://www.thanassis.space/myowncpu.html

    very cheap FPGA board, that came out of yet another failed company – the Pano Logic G2,

    Reply
  16. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Gameslab Is a Portable FPGA-Based Hardware Emulator
    https://www.hackster.io/news/gameslab-is-a-portable-fpga-based-hardware-emulator-685c44dfb4e0

    Craig J Bishop deigned a custom handheld game console based on a Xilinx Zynq FPGA-Arm Cortex-A9 combo SoC.

    Reply
  17. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Fun with Fractals
    https://www.hackster.io/adam-taylor/fun-with-fractals-5862a8

    Fractals are great patterns to recreate in FPGA. Let’s look at what they are and how to implement them.

    In this project we are going to examine how we can use Vivado HLS to create a Mandelbrot set fractal which can be explored and zoomed in under software control.

    Reply
  18. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Last week, Adam Taylor completed the creation of the Xilinx, Inc. Vitis acceleration platform for the Ultra96 and built an example application to pipe clean the process. This week, we take a closer look at it.

    MicroZed Chronicles: Vitis Example Application Deep Dive
    https://www.hackster.io/news/microzed-chronicles-vitis-example-application-deep-dive-cfb2434f6927

    A deep dive into the Vitis application example to demonstrate the Ultra96 V2 platform was created correctly.

    Reply
  19. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Snickerdoodle Black + piSmasher Bare Metal Bring Up in Vitis
    Getting the Snickerdoodle Black FPGA board with piSmasher baseboard up and running in Xilinx’s new IDE, Vitis.
    https://www.hackster.io/news/snickerdoodle-black-pismasher-bare-metal-bring-up-in-vitis-375236505331

    Reply
  20. Tomi Engdahl says:

    In his first MicroZed Chronicle of 2020, Adam Taylor takes a closer look a prototyping RFSoC solutions with the Avnet RFSoC Explorer and MATLAB.

    MicroZed Chronicles: RFSoC Explorer
    How to prototype RFSoC solutions with the RFSoC Explorer and MATLAB.
    https://www.hackster.io/news/microzed-chronicles-rfsoc-explorer-d4823efebf47

    Reply
  21. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Ready to bring the power of FPGAs to your embedded projects? We’ve updated our MKR Vidor 4000 page with some more details and this super useful pinout diagram: http://bit.ly/30kioZ2

    Reply
  22. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Have some FPGA fun with real-time fractals.

    FPGA-Fractals 1920x1080x60 Real-Time on USB Power
    https://www.hackster.io/markus-nentwig/fpga-fractals-1920x1080x60-real-time-on-usb-power-c3d296

    FPGA-based real-time fractal generation. Fully pipelined, dynamic resource allocation, up to 18000 MMUL/s. Float matrix math on J1B CPU.

    Reply
  23. Tomi Engdahl says:

    MicroZed Chronicles: Vitis Emulation
    How to use the different build flows available in Vitis.
    https://www.hackster.io/news/microzed-chronicles-vitis-emulation-6f6838e2b4d8

    Reply

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