Developers, electronic enthusiasts and hobbyists may be interested in a new range of CM4-pin-compatible FPGA development boards offering modular versions of the popular open-hardware project ULX3S. The range of hardware will soon be available to purchase from the Crowd Supply website and the development board include a Lattice ECP5 FPGA, IS42S16320D-6BLI 64 MB SDRAM, W25Q128JVSIM NOR Flash SPIFlash, 3 V, 128 Mbit, 4 KB Uniform Sector and KSZ9031RNXCA Ethernet connection.
Two models of the ULX4M-LS development board will be made available equipped with 64 MB of on-board SDRAM, and ULX4M-LD, with 1GB of DDR3 memory. Both dev boards offer users a versatile, programmable, modular, FPGA board that can be combined with a wide range of additional peripherals. But crucially, the ULX4M range of development boards provides support for the high-speed SerDes interface.
ULX4M-LS development board
“As the FPGA community continues to grow, more and more modules are being created. One of our goals with ULX4M was to make it easy to swap in and test chips from different vendors and to support vendor-neutral code where possible. The simplest solution is to have a modular board that can carry FPGAs from various manufacturers. Less expensive FPGAs have a limited number of SerDes lines and require that you determine in advance which peripheral will use those lines. The SoM approach allow you to design your own carrier board and include the exact set of peripherals you need.”
“Embedded systems are everywhere, including in high-security environments, but we rarely know what’s going on inside those systems. Thanks to its open-source design, ULX4M provides a level of transparently that not only facilitates trust, it also helps users maintain their independence by allowing them to manufacture their own boards where appropriate.”
For more information on the ULX4M range of open-hardware, CM4-pin-compatible FPGA development boards and to register your interest and be notified when the project launches. Jump over to the official Crowd Supply project page by following the link below.