Open hardware (or equivalent) FPGA dev boards? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: AntiProtonBoy
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2011, 04:41:59 pm
content: I'm a bit of a n00b in this field, I was wondering if there are any open hardware FPGA prototyping boards available in the same vein as Arduino and friends? I'm looking into something pretty fast, something more serious DSP-capable boards, perhaps suitable for real-time HD image processing, etc. So far, the closest thing I could find is theOpen Graphics Project, but its application is too focused on VGA stuff. Any other suggestions?

author: ejeffrey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2011, 06:13:52 pm
content: There is the gadget factory stuff:http://www.gadgetfactory.net/I haven't used it, but they have a logic analyzer based on it, athough it is seriously limited in record length due to using the FPGAs built-in SRAM.

author: seattle
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: September 09, 2011, 04:13:06 am
content: I don't think these guys are still selling, but I got an FPGA (Spartan3 400K gates) with Cypress USB a while back from these guyshttp://www.fpgaz.com/and the entire package was good. A little cryptic in places, but overall a very solid starting point.

author: joelby
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 09, 2011, 04:49:20 am
content: Two spring to mind:TheUSRP software radioshave a reasonably large FPGA and contain ADCs and DACs. The current models use an FPGA device that is not supported by the free Xilinx ISE Webpack edition, so you would need to purchase a license to do any development on it.TheMilkymist Oneis a development platform aimed at video processing, with analogue video and VGA support.Neither are really designed to be used for general development in the same way as an Arduino. If you're not hung up on open hardware you could consider using theDigilent Atlyswhich is very inexpensive for what you get (especially if you're a student) and capable, with an audio codec, two HDMI inputs and two outputs, and more.The newer, higher end FPGA devices are not particularly hobbyist friendly due to their unwieldy packages, but you'll find that most of the commercial development boards provide schematic diagrams so you can build your own boards based on them if you have the expertise.

author: Jimmy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 09, 2011, 09:33:52 am
content: Something likehttp://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/papilio-one-250k-p-809.html?cPath=132_192I may buy one to have a play with

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 09, 2011, 09:38:11 am
content: OpenCoreshas at least 20 entries in their prototype board section.

author: AntiProtonBoy
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 10, 2011, 02:03:58 pm
content: Thanks for the feedback. That should keep me busy.

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 10, 2011, 04:44:43 pm
content: Pretty much all FPGA devboards are by their nature open to the extent they include schematics etc. of at least of the bits you need. You occasionally get oddities like Xilinx omitting details of on-board programmers (which they no longer do, hence you can now buy "Xilinx" Jtags on Ebay for peanuts) but in practice this is rarely an issue.The difference between what most FPGA devboards provide this and OSHWTMis unlikely to matter to all but the most fervant devotees.The toolchains will never be open-source so that's a non-issue.There are hundreds of FPGA boards out there, so you should be able to find one that is a reasonable fit for your needs.