Do you think microcontrollers are enough? A low cost FPGA board can change what we build next.
Anyone who spends enough time experimenting with electronics eventually reaches a stage where single board computers and microcontrollers are no longer sufficient. Many of us hit that point when a design needs massive processing parallelization or ultra low latency. At that stage an FPGA becomes a far better option for us. However, FPGAs are often a complex and expensive space to enter. Because of that, it is smart for us as hobbyists to look for low cost and easy to access FPGA development boards that still support a wide range of applications.
A new board called SHRIKE lite has been released by Vicharak, and it is useful for people like us who are new to FPGAs because it includes a capable Renesas SLG47910V FPGA and also a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller. The design includes a 6 bit channel for communication between the FPGA and the microcontroller so that both chips can run processing tasks and make use of each other’s strengths.
The FPGA provides 1,120 five input LUTs and has 14 exposed GPIO pins. The microcontroller adds another 23 GPIO pins and uses a 32 bit dual core ARM Cortex M0+ processor that can be overclocked well beyond its 200 MHz rating. To keep costs low, the rest of the board is kept simple. It includes a QSPI flash chip for configuration and storage, two LEDs, and a USB C connector for power and programming.
The full software toolchain for the board is open source, which means it is likely to remain usable and supported for a long time. That matters to us, because without working software, the hardware would end up unused in a parts bin. With better distribution in the future, the SHRIKE lite could become a very practical board for us to keep available.
