Open-source hardware USB Type-C industrial camera features Lattice Crosslink NX FPGA

Open-source hardware USB Type-C camera

Gaurav Singh, acting as Circuit Valley, has designed an open-source hardware USB 3.0 Type-C industrial camera with three boards: one to capture data through a CMOS sensor,  another based on a Lattice Crosslink NX FPGA to handle image processing, and finally, a board equipped with an Infineon FX3 USB 3.0 controller for sending the video data to the host. This design allows the DIY camera to be extremely flexible, as for instance, you could keep the FPGA and USB board, and simply change the sensor board for a better/different camera. A 3D printable enclosure is also provided, and the camera supports C-mount lenses, so the lens can also be easily changed as required. Here’s what the final result looks like. Camera specifications: Sensor board Sensor for example Sony IMX290, IMX327, or IMX462 Oscillator FPGA/Host board interface – High-density connector with I2C, 4-lane MIPI with clock, I2C, a few other control […]

LimeSDR Mini 2.0 USB SDR board gets an upgrade to Lattice Semi ECP5 FPGA (Crowdfunding)

LimeSDR Mini 2

The LimeSDR Mini is an open-source hardware full-duplex USB SDR board based on Intel Altera Max 10 Altera FGPA that was introduced in 2017 on Crowd Supply and raised close to $2 million US dollars. Since it has been used in various projects including digital TV transmitters. Lime Microsystems is now back on Crowd Supply with the similar-looking LimeSDR Mini 2.0 replacing the MAX 10 FPGA with 16K logic gates with a more powerful and capable Lattice Semiconductor ECP5 FPGA with 44K logic gates while keeping the company’s LMS7002 RF transceiver. LimeSDR Mini 2 specifications: FPGA –  Lattice Semi ECP5 (LFE5U-45F) with 44K logic gates, 108 sysMEM blocks (18kb), 1,944 Kb embedded memory, 351 Kb distributed RAM bits Storage –  4 MB flash memory for data; 2x128KB EEPROM for RF transceiver MCU firmware and data RF Lime Microsystems LMS7002M RF transceiver Tx & Rx SMA connectors Frequency range – 10 […]

$349 AMD Kria KR260 Robotics Starter Kit takes on NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier devkit

AMD Kria KR260 Robotics Starter Kit

AMD Xilinx Kria KR260 Robotics Starter Kit features the Kria K26 Zynq UltraScale+ XCK26 FPGA MPSoC system-on-module (SoM) introduced last year together with the Kria KV260 Vision AI Starter Kit. Designed as a development platform for robotics and industrial applications, the KR260 is said to deliver nearly 5x productivity gain, up to 8x better performance per watt and 3.5x lower latency compared to Nvidia Jetson AGX Xavier or Jetson Nano kits. We’ll have a better look at the details below. Kria KR260 Robotics Starter Kit specifications: SoM – Kria K26 module with: MPSoC – Xilinx Zynq Ultrascale+ custom-built XCK26 with quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor  up to 1.5GHz, dual-core Arm Cortex-R5F real-time processor up to 600MHz, Mali-400 MP2 GPU up to 667MHz, 4Kp60 VPU, 26.6Mb On-Chip SRAM, 256K logic cells, 1,248 DSP slices, 144 Block RAM blocks, 64 UltraRAM blocks System Memory – 4GB 64-bit DDR4 (non-ECC) Storage – 512 Mbit […]

iCESugar-nano is a $19 iCE40LP1k FPGA board with 3x PMOD connectors

iCESugar-nano FPGA board

Muse Lab’s iCESugar-nano is a tiny FPGA board based on Lattice Semi iCE40LP1K-CM36 programmable via its USB-C port through on-board iCELink debugger, and exposing I/Os for three standard PMOD connectors. The board is fully supported by Yosys open-source toolchain ( Yosys+ nextpnr + IceStorm), and the onboard debugger supports drag-and-drop programming so that you can just drag the FPGA bitstream into the virtual disk to program it through a USB Type-C cable. iCESugar-nano specifications: FPGA – Lattice Semi iCE40LP1k FPGA with 1280 LUT/8KB SRAM/PLL Storage – 2MB SPI flash (W25Q16) USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power and programming Expansion – 14x usable IOs with 1x 12-pin PMOD connectors and 2x 6-pin PMOD connectors Debugging – On-board iCELink debugger based on Arm Mbed DAPLink Misc – Adjustable clock (8/12/36/72MHz), LED Power Supply – 5V via USB-C port Dimensions – 3.9 x 1.8 cm Documentation, schematic PDF, links to tools, […]

ZUBoard 1CG – A low-cost AMD Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ ZU1CG MPSoC FPGA development board

ZUBoard 1CG development board

Avnet ZUBoard 1CG is a development board featuring the new entry-level AMD Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ ZU1CG dual-core Cortex-A53 MPSoC with 81K FPGA system logic cells, equipped with 1GB LPDDR4 RAM, as well as SYZYGY connectors and mikroBus expansion for Click boards. Priced at $159, the board may offer a good opportunity to get started with Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC, as it’s quite cheaper than boards based on ZU3 devices such as Ultra96-V2 or MYD-CZU3EG. Avnet says the board is suitable for artificial intelligence, machine learning, embedded vision, embedded processing, and robotics applications. ZUBoard 1CG specifications: SoC – AMD/Xilinx ZU+ MPSoC ZU1CG with Dual Cortex-A53 APU @ up to 1.3 GHz and dual Cortex-R5 RPU @ up to 533 MHz 256KB On-chip Memory 81,900 FPGA Logic Cells System Memory – 1GB LPDDR4 with on-chip ECC Storage – 256Mbit QSPI flash, microSD card, both bootable Networking –  10/100/1000M Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port USB […]

M5Stack ATOM Display Lite adds HDMI output to ESP32 module

ESP32 HDMI output

M5Stack ATOM Display Lite is a kit based on GOWIN Gowin GW1NR-9C FPGA and LT8618SX RGB to HDMI chip designed to add HDMI output up to 720p to the company’s ESP32-based M5Stack ATOM Lite module. The ATOM Lite sees the ATOM Display Lite kit as an SPI display, but the solution outputs the data to an HDMI monitor or TV with up to 1280×720 resolution and can be used for information display, menu board, and more. ATOM Display Lite specifications: Wireless IoT modules – M5Stack ATOM Lite ESP32-PICO-D4 based module with 240MHz dual-core CPU, 520KB SRAM, 4MB flash, Wi-Fi 4 and Bluetooth connectivity FPGA – Gowin GW1NR-9C (PDF datasheet) FPGA with 8,640 LUTs used to simulate SPI TFT-LCD data output, HDMI bridge – Lontium Semi LT8618SX RGB to HDMI chip with 24-bit color depth up to 1280×720 output @ 60 fps (optimized frame rate up to 12 ~ 16FPS) Misc- […]

OSZU3 System-in-Package (SiP) combines AMD Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC with 2GB RAM, PMIC, passive components

OSZU3 system-in-package

Octavo Systems has collaborated with AMD Xilinx for the OSZU3 system-in-package (SiP) that combines Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC ZU3 with up to 2GB RAM, power management circuitry, and other components into a compact (40×20.5mm) 600-ball BGA package. We’ve already written about other Octavo Systems SiPs in the past with solutions like OSD3358x (TI Sitara AM3358) and OSD32MP15x (STMicro STM32MP1), but the OSZU3 packs a much more powerful and flexible chip with the AMD Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC offering both Cortex-A53 & Cortex-R5F cores, Arm Mali-400 GPU, and FPGA fabric.   Octavo Systems OSZU3 SiP specifications: SoC – AMD Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC ZU3 with CPU – 4x Arm Cortex-A53 up to 1.2GHz, 2x Arm Cortex-R5F up to 500MHz GPU – Arm Mali-400 FPGA 154K System Logic Cells 141K Flip-Flops 71K CLB LUTs 360 DSP Slices 7.6 Mb Block RAM System Memory – 2GB LPDDR4 Storage – 128MB SQPI, and 4K EEPROM (by […]

Silicon Witchery S1 module combines nRF52811 Bluetooth SoC with Lattice iCE40 FPGA

Silicon Witchery S1 module

Sweden-based Silicon Witchery S1 is a tiny module combining Nordic Semi nRF52811 Bluetooth LE SoC with Lattice Semi iCE40 FPGA designed for battery-powered applications leveraging DSP and machine learning (ML) at the edge. The S1 module features just four key components in a tiny 11.5 x 6 mm form factor and targets applications requiring “demanding” algorithms while consuming as little energy as possible. Silicon Witchery S1 module specifications: MCU – Nordic Semi nRF52811 Arm Cortex-M4 MCU @ 64 MHz with Bluetooth 5.2 support including Long Range, Thread support. FPGA – Lattice Semi iCE40 FPGA with 5k LUT and DSP blocks. Storage – 32 Mbit flash storage. Integrated antenna, passives, and crystals. I/Os – 20x castellated holes with 8x FPGA IO include I3C, I2C, SPI, and USB. 2x nRF GPIO pins with ADC and low power wake. SWD pins for debugging Power Supply Lithium battery charging and monitoring. 3x adjustable Vout […]

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