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DE0-Nano FPGA Learning Challenge Begins November 1

I’ve been busy enough that I haven’t done much tinkering or blogging lately, but I’m preparing to use the power of peer pressure to change that.

I’ve been interested in FPGAs (field-programmable gate arrays — big chips full of digital logic and links that you program to turn them into the circuits you want) for a long time. I understand them conceptually but have never had the chance to work with them.

In November of 2008, I found and ordered the Terasic DE0-Nano FPGA trainer / development board featuring the Altera Cyclone IV 4C22 FPGA. It has onboard LEDs, pushbuttons, DIP switches, accelerometer, and A/D converter; USB host connectivity; a set of tutorials to get you started; and (at least at the time) free host development software for Windows and Linux (which I can’t find online right now). And it’s $86 at Digi-Key.

After some period of not doing anything with it, I mentioned it to John Harrison and he suggested that he get one (and did) and that we challenge each other to go through the tutorials and then expand our knowledge by creating further interesting projects. Which we hadn’t done yet when we reminded each other about it … in December of 2013. And — you guessed it — haven’t done it yet.

Another reminder last month, and John boldly said, November 1! (He cunningly left off the year.)

November 1 it is. The learning challenge begins.

Care to join? Blog and I’ll link to you. Send (family-friendly) pictures and/or narrative and I’ll post them.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 16th, 2014 at 10:19 am by Keith Neufeld and is filed under FPGA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “DE0-Nano FPGA Learning Challenge Begins November 1”

  1. EmptyJay says:
    October 16, 2014 at 12:50 pm

    Very intriguing. I backed an FPGA on Kickstarter recently (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1812459948/minispartan6-a-powerful-fpga-board-and-easy-to-use) and I’m waiting for it to arrive. I can’t wait to start learning FPGA. This just could be another way to do so.

  2. EmptyJay says:
    October 21, 2014 at 03:56 pm

    I just ordered my kit. I can’t wait. No I just need someplace to post my progress. Maybe time to install something or sign up somewhere. :)

  3. EmptyJay says:
    October 23, 2014 at 01:39 pm

    Could you clarify the tutorials you’re going to use.

    I’m running into problems with the tutorial being written for an older version of the software and the newer one not having the menu options available (SOPC Builder).

    Thanks!

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