FPGA on Android

- non-volatile FPGA plus FTDI USB chip

- connects to an Android host mode USB port

- application software in Lua, with Java interface/driver

- high-level Gideros software for whizzy graphics

- FPGA firmware samples, including logic analyzer in source

also works on a PC - useful for reprogramming the FPGA.

Everything open source.

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Tim
Reply to
Tim
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Interesting - I'm slightly regretting you didn't use an ICE40 FPGA but I think I'll buy one. I'm really pleased to see the open source, VHDL, LUA and Android host - nice combination.

Michael Kellett

Reply to
MK

The ICE40 non-volatile memory is OTP. You can also program the SRAM directly, but OTP is a problem in some applications.

And this board is a spin-off from a bigger project, for which the XO2 is the best fit.

Reply to
Tim

Does the board have support for measuring power consumption of the XO2? Different rails?

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Rick
Reply to
rickman

There's only one rail - 3.3V. This flavor of the XO2 has an internal regulator for the core voltage.

You can measure current draw by one of

- a USB current meter, easy to find on eBay

- lift the Schottky in the power input and replace with a 0.1R resistor.

As always, current consumption in an FPGA depends on the design it is programmed with. But you know that.

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Tim
Reply to
Tim

There is nothing on the board but the FPGA? Providing for power measurement takes more than just lifting a diode and adding a series resistor unless the FPGA is the only thing on the board. Also, even if there is not a separate core rail, the I/Os have their own power pins even if used at 3.3 volts in this design. These days many designs use other voltages.

That is what I want to measure, the combination of part and design. I have an ICE40 board and would be interested in doing comparisons with the XO2. They talk about the XO2 having low power in some modes, but I expect it is nothing like the ICE40.

I'm about to do some power measurements on the ICE40 I have. The original devices from Silicon Blue were specified as something around 30 or 50 uA quiescent (can't remember off the top of my head). But they weren't really in production when Lattice took over and started dinking with the data sheet. They changed the quiescent from a max to a typ number and raised it to 100 uA for most in the family. I want to see

*how* typical that number is and see just how much it goes up with a low power design. I get the impression the XO2 and XO3 may be competitive depending on that static/dynamic tradeoff.
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Rick
Reply to
rickman

I think you sent me an email, although it may have been intended for the newsgroup. I tried to reply but the return address is bad and I can't seem to make it good.

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Rick
Reply to
rickman

There isn't much on the board - you can download the schematic and check. Most of the components are various protection devices and they should not affect the result, particularly if you do a comparison against an unconfigured FPGA.

That would also remove th effect of the FTDI device.

A couple of config pins have pullups - not really needed because the chip is programmed via JTAG - but you should be able to calculate their current drain.

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Tim
Reply to
Tim

Hello, I meant to post to the group but I'm forever clicking the wrong button in Thunderbird. Sorry.

I'm trying to get a couple of new ICE40 designs up and running (used an 'HX1k before with no real trouble) and having problems with PLLs (trying to simulate and also working out which pins the ref input can use - Lattice say any GBIN but the ICECube tools says only two pins near the PLL power pins). I was wondering if anyone has actually used the PLLs. I'm also having no joy in getting slave spi mode to work (on 'HX4k) - once again this was OK on the 1K part but there are still a few things to try.

Michael Kellett.

Reply to
MK

I feel your pain with regards to T-bird. I seldom make that mistake now but at first it was a struggle.

Keep us informed with your progress using the ICE40 parts. Maybe start a new thread.

I am on Lattice's distribution list for EOL's and such. I just got a notice that they are deleting one of the two packages for the ultra parts. They say they had *no* design wins in the 20 pin package. I'm not entirely surprised with only 12 I/Os. They can't seem to find a middle ground.

The emphasis for FPGAs seems to be more on package size than low pin count really. They don't go with any easier to use packages (read larger or non-BGA) with lower pin counts, but rather small packages regardless of pin count. I guess handheld is driving the market these days. Space is at a premium while I/O counts still need to be generous.

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Rick
Reply to
rickman

I'll try to post something on my web site - it needs some more interesting new technical stuff. Michael Kellett

Reply to
MK

Does the ICE40 use the same hard macro as the XO2 and XO3?

The XO2 slave SPI works well. We use it for configuration on our Raspberry Pi add-on board. We intended to use I2C, but the Pi cannot do I2C Restart so we had to fall back (!) to SPI for configuration.

There's a clever hack to get I2C Restart to work on the Pi, but it relies on exact timing and jumping on the I2C bus at just the right moment. We passed on that.

Pi I2C is just fine for regular (non-configuration) use where you can define a protocol that doesn't use Restarts.

If it helps, our XO2 I2C code (VHDL) is here:

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Tim
Reply to
Tim

I don't know for sure if the SPI design is the same or not. The ICE40 was not designed by Lattice. It was done by Silicon Blue which was bought by Lattice a couple of years ago. Lattice made some tweaks to the ICE40 line, but I doubt that they replaced the SPI port module with their own.

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Rick
Reply to
rickman

Wait a minute, what exactly is this?

What am I - the user - capable of doing to the device with an Android?

Can I reprogram the FPGA? I assume yes, but do I need a PC for that? In the sense "can I use only the Android phone to make a transition from Verilog/VHDL sources to a programmed FPGA"?

Reply to
Aleksandar Kuktin

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