Lattice Semi is offering the iCEblink40 Evaluation Kits for $19 for a limited time. The iCEblink40 boards feature the ultra low density iCE40 FPGA and come in two versions, the iCEblink40-HX1K and the iCEblink40-LP1K Evaluation Kits which differ in the number of I/O pins. Both boards offer 1280 logic look up tables and 64K bits of on-chip memory, as well as 1Mbit of SPI Flash memory, capacitive touch buttons, LEDs and access to all user I/Os.
Lattice is also offering the MachXO2 Pico Development Kit for a limited time at a price of $29. This kit features the MachXO2 LCMXO2-1200ZE device, 1 Mbit SPI Flash, I2C temperature sensor, an expansion header for JTAG, SPI, I2C and GPIO interfaces, an LCD display and capacitive touch sense buttons.
hak8or via the contact form.
If this is the same iCE40HX1K part http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Lattice/iCE40HX1K-TQ144/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMvg1mlwe17tRoR47DGrfRdz
then it is listed as having a max. operating freq of 533 MHz. Somewhat of an apples-to-oranges comparison but that is somewhat faster than the parts used on DP’s $15 CPLD dev boards, as I recall.
Big surprise. I was about to order one. They ask you for your credit card information and let you choose the shipping method (for Spain, only FedEx was available) but they don’t give you any information about shipping costs. In fact, you’re supposed to confirm the order and possibly authorise a charge to the credit card without knowing how much shipping would be. They say they determine the shipping costs at the time of shipment but let you check at fedex how much it would be.
According to fedex, and assuming a 2kg package (I know it’d be much less but it doesn’t matter that much) the shipping costs would be more than $100…
Damn it.
Nobody was speaking of MPS430 until YOU “I give (5$)” the launchpad.
Lattice + Fedex is too expensive, it is marketing error
Mouser and Digikey offer the boards for the same price. Not sure if that’s helpful for people outside the US, but domestically this at least offers more reasonable USPS rates.
I’m in Australia – and I recently bought the $50 Lattice XP2 Brevia2 FPGA.
Freight cost an extra $40.
I’m guessing the cost would be the same for the CPLD.
Do they have Linux versions of their development tools?
Lattice Diamond has a Linux version. See: http://www.latticesemi.com/products/designsoftware/diamond/downloads.cfm
ispLEVER Classic is Windows only. See: http://www.latticesemi.com/products/designsoftware/ispleverclassic/index.cfm
So, after a bit of digging, it seems:
* The iCEblink40-HX1K Evaluation Kit has the:
Lattice iCE40HX1K-VQ100
Mouser Part #: 842-ICE40HX1K-VQ100, 110 Avail., $4.83 USD Qty.-1, at my post time.
This TQFP-100 package may be easier to work with (compared witht the part below) for prototyping off the Eval Kit.
* The iCEblink40-LP1K Evaluation Kit has the:
Lattice iCE40LP1K-QN84
Mouser Part #: 842-ICE40LP1K-QN84, 160 Avail., $4.22 USD, Qty.-1, at my post time.
This QFN-84 package is going to be difficult to work with if you want to prototype off the Eval Kit.
From the Mouser overview, both parts referenced above are reported to have a 533 MHz maximum clock frequency.
That said… I have no experience with Lattice parts. So I’ll have to do more research to see how these parts, and the Lattice development (crippled?) tool-chain compare to the likes of Xilinx and Altera (both of which I have some experience with).
The Lattice parts I reference above look interesting. And it is good to see some low cost Eval Boards out from Lattice; even-if for a limited time.
Disclosure/Disclaimer:
I just spent a few minutes (OK, maybe a little longer) scraping the Web for the above information. Some or all of it may be wrong. At post time, I don’t work for – or have any dealings with Lattice Semiconductor.
Just my two-Cents… Enjoy
Devices are LUT-based. Maximum clock is 533Mhz *only* for PLL/LVDS.
Maximum clock for RAM memory blocks is 256 Mhz.
The VQ100 package doesn’t have PLL.There are 8 global low-skew clock lines.
One can easily “configure” them with the help of a SPI Flash ( and flash programmer )
BTW, according to this press release, the promotional pricing ends Oct 31.
http://www.latticesemi.com/corporate/newscenter/productnews/2012/r120827announcespromotion.cfm
No mention what the regular price will be, but it can’t be that high given the few components and reasonable FPGA price.
Try digikey, they are quoting £12 delivery as under £50, and £13.10 for one of the boards.
I need Lattice products in Shenzhen – China – if how to get and where available
If I can ask Lattice – or any one give me Lattice contact so i can ask them
Athar Kaludi [ceo_premium at Yahoo]
ICE40LP1K FPGA (to me) looks a viable alternative to Altera MAX3000 CPLDs – it seems to offer more bang (gates/cells) for the same buck (~4 EUR). But I have a DIY Wiggler/ByteBlaster_II@LPT board while I don’t know (yet) what cheap DIY device can I use to program ICE40 devices.