[HN Gopher] FPGA dev board that's cheap, simple and supported by...
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       FPGA dev board that's cheap, simple and supported by OSS toolchain
        
       Author : funkaster
       Score  : 27 points
       Date   : 2021-01-10 22:04 UTC (55 minutes ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | osamagirl69 wrote:
       | I love the emphasis on breaking out all of the GPIO pins, it is
       | incredible today how many dev boards either leave pins as not
       | connected or hard wire them (no jumper to disable) to some onboad
       | peripheral. Looking at you stm32 discovery boards...
        
         | the__alchemist wrote:
         | The Discovery boards are a bit of a minefield over which pins
         | you're allowed to use. It can cause surprising problems if you
         | don't check the dev board manual's pin table, or don't know how
         | to interpret it. Additionally, you need to plug the jumpers
         | into the bottom of the board; it looks like you can use the
         | top, but the jumpers tend to fall out!
         | 
         | The nucelo ones are even weirder. The pins aren't labeled on
         | the board, and they're in a weird layout, with some male and
         | others female.
        
       | the__alchemist wrote:
       | How does this compare to alternatives for learning FPGA? What's
       | the significance of the _duino_ suffix?
       | 
       | When would you choose FPGA over something like an STM32?
       | 
       | I've no experience with FPGA, but would like to learn. This is
       | listed as "no longer available for sale". Which dev board do you
       | recommend? Thank you.
        
       | MasterScrat wrote:
       | Here's the board I still have from my student years. I'm curious
       | how it compares to modern alternatives? I haven't kept up with
       | that field at all:
       | 
       | https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/147963601.pdf
        
         | flatiron wrote:
         | Take a look at the de10 nano. Crazy good board for the price.
         | No OSS tool chain though.
        
       | noncoml wrote:
       | I had fun playing with the Lattice ICE40 Ultra Plus Breakout
       | board.
       | 
       | I wouldn't call it expensive (~$60) and it's pretty simple.
       | 
       | The toolchain by Lattice however is not the best
        
       | funkaster wrote:
       | I was looking for a cheap (< $30) board to start playing with
       | FPGAs and found this one. It's a good improvement over the v2
       | that had some signal issues[0]. The examples also include a
       | RISC-V core.
       | 
       | [0]: https://tinyvision.ai/blogs/processing-at-the-edge/ground-
       | tr...
        
         | osamagirl69 wrote:
         | That is a very neat blog post, it is great to see an open
         | discussion of the issues that they faced with the product and
         | how they tried to improve it.
        
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       (page generated 2021-01-10 23:00 UTC)