Just last week, I wrote about miniSpartan3, an FPGA board powered by Xilinx Spartan 3A. It costs as low as $25, features an HDMI output port, but lacks RAM. Numato Lab’s Mimas V2 is another low cost FPGA board with a more powerful Spartan 6 FPGA, 512 Mb LPDDR memory, and instead of HDMI output, a VGA port has been included on the board. The board can be used for prototype development, signal processing, learning digital electronics and as an educational tool for schools and universities.
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Technical specifications:
- FPGA – Xilinx Spartan XC6SLX9 in CSG324 package
- System Memory – 512Mb LPDDR @ 166 MHz (MT46H32M16LF/W949D6CBHX6E)
- Storage – 16 Mb SPI flash memory (M25P16) + micro SD card slot
- Video Output – VGA connector
- Audio – Stereo jack
- USB – 1x mini USB 2.0 port for on-board flash programming
- Expansion Headers – Four 6×2 header with access to 32 I/O pins, and compatible wtih Numato Lab’s add-on boards.
- Debugging / Programming – Via JTAG header or micro USB port
- Misc
- 8x LEDs, 6x Push Buttons
- 8 way DIP switch for user defined purposes.
- Three digit seven segment displays.
- Power Supply
- +5V from USB by default; External +5V power as option. Power input selected by jumper
- On-board voltage regulators for single power rail operation
- Dimensions – 120 x 73 mm
The board can be programmed with Xilinx ISE Webpack (Windows and Linux) via USB without the need for a programmer. The company also provides documentation, Verilog code samples, and several tutorials for their board, so it should be easy to get started, even for beginners. Add-on boards that can be connected via the 6×2 headers include AC97 audio codec expansion module, HDMI transmitter board, mini breadboard module, AD9283 ADC Expansion Module,and more.
The FPGA board sells for $49.95 on Amazon US, or directly on Numato Lab’s Mimas V2 product page, where you’ll also find all resources to play or work with the board.
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Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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