Design Automation


FPGA evaluation kit on a stick

18 September 2013 Design Automation

New from Lattice Semiconductor is the iCEstick evaluation kit, an easy-to-use USB thumb drive form factor development board that allows engineers and system architects to rapidly evaluate and develop mobile solutions based on the company’s iCE40 mobileFPGA family, which is built to address the mobile devices market.

The kit speeds solution development by including, along with the FPGA, hardware features and reference designs targeting infrared and sensor functions for smartphones, tablets, gaming devices and a host of other applications that have demanding requirements for low cost, low power and fast time to market.

Using the kit, designers can implement a solution that replaces virtually any high-end remote control to interface to TVs, LED lighting systems or other infrared-controlled devices. Additionally, it provides a simple starting point to design infrared data transfer between mobile devices such as PCs, tablets, gaming devices and more. It enables this by using the iCE40 FPGA to implement a fully programmable Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) function and bridge to an infrared LED.

To streamline and accelerate development, the kit includes reference designs that enable wireless transmission of data or control signals. This is done via an interface to an IrDA transceiver or a Digilent Pmod compatible peripheral connector, all while using a minimal number of I/Os from the iCE40 FPGA. The Pmod compatible peripheral connector also enables designers to connect an accelerometer to the board to develop solutions for senor interfacing, monitoring and data management.

Getting started with the iCEstick evaluation kit simply requires connection to a laptop or PC like a USB thumb drive, giving users immediate access to the onboard iCE40HX-1k FPGA. The kit is supported by Lattice’s iCEcube2 design software for HDL development and Lattice Diamond Programmer software enabling programming via the device’s SPI Flash.



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