I stupidly bought the sole chip. Then my professor said you need a development board. I want to DIY to learn some practical aspects.Depends on what you want to develop. That will dictate what features are critical, what features are useful, and what features don't matter at all.
Why are you building it instead of just purchasing one of the many FPGA development boards that are available?
Thank you so much.Hello,
there are some things you will need have an your FPGA board, like a connector to program your FPGA and the power supply.
Probably the best way to start is to read the guides on the XILINX website. This will teach you the basics and then you can think about what you want to do with the board. There are a lot of FPGA dev boards to draw some inspiration.
Designing a development board is a pretty big undertaking, particularly if you want to be able to exploit many of the capabilities of modern FPGAs. I would recommend getting an off-the-shelf development board and then use that FPGA later in a project.I stupidly bought the sole chip. Then my professor said you need a development board. I want to DIY to learn some practical aspects.
The result is then a development board that is so limited that you can't do very much development with it. Keep in mind that the reason he is even considering this in the first place is because he has ONE chip that he mistakenly bought before he realize he was supposed to get an actual development board.You guy, it's not harder to do that.
As a newbie, you only concentrate on the basic system, the main Chip, the clock circuit, the communication part such as UART(TTL<->) UART, and the power supply.
Do not integrate too many functions at the first time.
Eliminate all un-necessary, only keep the core system.
Hello,Hello. I have an Spartan 3 xc3s400 4tqg144c FPGA. I want to build a FPGA development board for education undergraduate university. Which components do i need to buy? I am a beginner. Thank you.
The result is then a development board that is so limited that you can't do very much development with it. Keep in mind that the reason he is even considering this in the first place is because he has ONE chip that he mistakenly bought before he realize he was supposed to get an actual development board.
GOWIN FPGA?Hello,
some time ago I designed minimum FPGA board for small Gowin FPGA (1N series) - GW1N-LV1LQ144C6/I5 :
https://www.mouser.co.uk/ProductDetail/GOWIN-Semiconductor/GW1N-LV1LQ144C6-I5?qs=wnTfsH77Xs7aDt6aCh03TQ==
The designed board has JTAG header for programing, clock oscilator 24 MHz, reset circiut, basic FPGA configuration parts, LDOs (one can change voltage on all 4 IO banks) and more than 80 IO pins available. Here is picture of working FPGA board:
View attachment 288287And here is test of IO pins with LEDS:
View attachment 288291
I was able to program FPGA board by "Gowin Cable" JTAG programer and "GOWIN EDA" software:
View attachment 288288Here is schematics and PCB (PDF format) for this board. One can extend this board adding for example LEDs, DIP switches, switches, VGA DAC (based on resistors), maybe ADC converter, SRAM memory etc.
The FPGA on this board is small - 1152 LUTs, but for basic learning it is enough
Best Regards
Keep in mind the context he is working from -- he is taking a course and his professor expected him to get a development board and he mistakenly got just an FPGA device instead. He needs a suitable development board before he can do what he is required to do in the course he is currently taking. He does not have time to build a core system (using the ONE chip that he has), then learn the theory of FPGA design, then add everything else that he needs, so that he can FINALLY start doing the things that he is supposed to be doing NOW with a development board.
Yeah, sir. I agree with you 100%.
For a new beginner, when a basic core system was built successfully, it's easy to expand with more peripherals.
After he knows the theory of FPGA design, he can do everything he wants, add SDRAM, DDR2, OLED, SPI/I2C devices. etc.
From the question, he might not know how to start.
I insist a basic core system is a good beginning for him.
Hi,GOWIN FPGA?
Never heard about it.
Google search engine tells me it was produced by A Chinese Company.
What's your feeling about using it? Convenience? Technology support is okay?
Thank you SirHello,
some time ago I designed minimum FPGA board for small Gowin FPGA (1N series) - GW1N-LV1LQ144C6/I5 :
https://www.mouser.co.uk/ProductDetail/GOWIN-Semiconductor/GW1N-LV1LQ144C6-I5?qs=wnTfsH77Xs7aDt6aCh03TQ==
The designed board has JTAG header for programing, clock oscilator 24 MHz, reset circiut, basic FPGA configuration parts, LDOs (one can change voltage on all 4 IO banks) and more than 80 IO pins available. Here is picture of working FPGA board:
View attachment 288287And here is test of IO pins with LEDS:
View attachment 288291
I was able to program FPGA board by "Gowin Cable" JTAG programer and "GOWIN EDA" software:
View attachment 288288Here is schematics and PCB (PDF format) for this board. One can extend this board adding for example LEDs, DIP switches, switches, VGA DAC (based on resistors), maybe ADC converter, SRAM memory etc.
The FPGA on this board is small - 1152 LUTs, but for basic learning it is enough
Best Regards
Thank you SirHello,
some time ago I designed minimum FPGA board for small Gowin FPGA (1N series) - GW1N-LV1LQ144C6/I5 :
https://www.mouser.co.uk/ProductDetail/GOWIN-Semiconductor/GW1N-LV1LQ144C6-I5?qs=wnTfsH77Xs7aDt6aCh03TQ==
The designed board has JTAG header for programing, clock oscilator 24 MHz, reset circiut, basic FPGA configuration parts, LDOs (one can change voltage on all 4 IO banks) and more than 80 IO pins available. Here is picture of working FPGA board:
View attachment 288287And here is test of IO pins with LEDS:
View attachment 288291
I was able to program FPGA board by "Gowin Cable" JTAG programer and "GOWIN EDA" software:
View attachment 288288Here is schematics and PCB (PDF format) for this board. One can extend this board adding for example LEDs, DIP switches, switches, VGA DAC (based on resistors), maybe ADC converter, SRAM memory etc.
The FPGA on this board is small - 1152 LUTs, but for basic learning it is enough
Best Regards
You will find that the cost of the components is more than purchasing a pre made and tested board.Thank you all. I have just a XC3S400-4TQG144C chip and I searched and found that i need at least theses components:
-a Configuration Memory Flash PROM, for example XCF04S
-an High speed asynchronous SRAM 256 kbit, give me an example??
-An EEPROM like AT24C08
-an oscillator
The problem is, which compatible components list should i order?