Kati writes to inform us that Altera and Arrow Electronics have teamed up to introduce the BeMicro SDK (Software Development Kit), a prototyping board for embedded software developers to learn about FPGAs. The board runs a soft embedded processor on a 22K logic element FPGA, and utilizes the popular USB stick format. It’s available on Arrow’s website for $79. For more tech details check the Altera Wiki BeMicro page.
You can view Altera’s promo video here.
Via the contact form.
It would be nice, if there was a mating part for the edge connector in the kit. I bought a Spartan 3e kit which comes with a Hirose 1.27 DS connector. I am struggling to get the mating part. Digi Key has it for $6-8, but the shipping itself is $40. Digilent sells the mating part wired to a breadboard, but there shipping is $50 again.
Google for ‘s6microboard’ for an equivalent design based on a Xilinx fpga. The chip’s smaller (9K logic elements) and a bit more expensive, but it’s easier to interface with another project.
@Zooboo, I agree. The first thing I saw was connector that is impossible to connect to. Then I saw the price – ouch! I’ll pass…
Lol, machinegeek and I both hit them up for some freebies to give away, and samples to include in projects. We may have some of these and/or some other Altera parts you can play with soon :)
@Ian, That would be really nice. Suggest something for that edge connector.
Damn. I was hoping to use the FPGA as a DSP, and make a decimating filter…
Then I saw the connector.
Pass, thank you.
There is a mating part for the Edge connector available from Hitex. It has a prototyping board attached.
Also in the pipeline are other ‘daughter card’ options.
You can also get the board for half price by attending a free hands-on workshop hosted by Arrow.
If it used the USB connector for high-speed comms (480 mbps theroretical) I’d want one. If it had a fast ADC (or two!) and the FPGA could be configured as a Decimation filter, I’d be drooling at the chance to get into the basics of DSP.
As it stands, however, I wouldnt touch it with a 3 metre stick.