原创 This low-power $5 FPGA module is really cool

I recently got a message from Antti Lukats, who is the research and development manager at Trenz Electronic in Germany. Antii pointed me at his latest project called DIPSY on the Hackaday website.

The DIPSY is a tiny (10mm x 10mm) FPGA module that's priced at only $5 USD. DIPSY is based on an ice40UL1K FPGA from Lattice Semiconductor. The module details are as follows:

- 5 I/O Pins arranged as DIP-8 PCB, ATtiny85 compatible pinout

- 5 LED I/O Pins: 3 x 24mA drive, 1x 100mA, 1x 400mA

- 1280 Logic Cells (LUT + Flip+Flop)

- up to 7KByte of internal RAM (14 Block RAM Tiles)

- Microchip 2KByte UNIO EEPROM

- Texas Intstruments 1.2V LDO for core supply

- Hard IP Cores: IR RX, TX, I2C, RGB LED PWM

- Idle power consumption < 30µA

- Free development tools

I love the fact that this module / breakout board uses a traditional DIL form-factor with a 0.1" pitch, because this will make it easy to use with breadboards.

I'm in a back-and-forth email conversation with Antti as I pen these words. He says it's likely they will launch a Kickstarter project for the DIPSY as soon as they have photos of the working prototype. If they do launch a Kickstarter, you can bet I'll be talking about it here. Watch this space! In the meantime, what do you think you might use one of these little beauties for?