FPGAs used to be mysterious, expensive devices, but these days you can buy surprisingly capable boards for very little money. Some years ago, I did an FPGA Bootcamp over on …. The FPGA Chronicles: Exploring the Tang Nano 20K.
Much of that material still applies, but the hardware is dated. So I decided it was time to update it, using the inexpensive Tang Nano 20K and its GOWIN GW2AR-18 FPGA as the main platform, with perhaps a few excursions into other FPGAs. History and Motivation Once upon a time, if you wanted to have a custom IC, you went with a wheelbarrow full of money to a semiconductor company.
Some smart person at a semiconductor fab eventually realized they could make a chip with a lot of uncommitted blocks on it and then, for a custom chip, only design the wiring that connected them together. This still required a wheelbarrow full of money, but it was a smaller wheelbarrow. Then one day, someone realized they could do the same thing but make the electrical connections between the blocks configurable.
Discover more from ChuckysCarnage
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
