Lattice Semiconductor: ICE40HX1K-STICK-EVN iCEstick Evaluation Kit

atomar — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 13:43:49 GMT

Current Revision posted to Documents by atomar on 9/30/2013 1:43:49 PM

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Development Tools

Overview

The iCEstick Evaluation Kit (ICE40HX1K-STICK-EVNICE40HX1K-STICK-EVN) is an easy to use, small size board that allows rapid prototyping of system functions at a very low cost using Lattice Semiconductor's iCE40iCE40 FPGA family. This board has a high-performance, low-power iCE40HX1KiCE40HX1K FPGA on board and has a USB thumb drive form factor. I/O connectors include 16 LVCMOS/LVTTL (3.3 V) digital I/O connections on 0.1” through-hole connections and a 2 x 6 position Digilent Pmod connector for other peripheral connections. The board’s FTDI 2232H USB device allows iCE device programming and UART interface to a PC. Five on-board LEDs can be used to display all sorts of different information, plus the user has access to 16 general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins. The iCEstick also includes an IrDA (Infrared Data Association) transceiver. IrDA protocols are implemented in a range of portable devices, including mobile phones, laptops, cameras, printers, medical devices, and many more. The board also features a Discera 12 Mhz MEMS oscillator, Micron 32 Mbit N25Q32 SPI flash and is powered directly from the USB connector.

The iCEstick is supported by Lattice iCEcube2 design software for HDL development. Programing the onboard iCE40HX-1k device’s SPI flash is done with Lattice Diamond Programmer.

The Lattice iCE40iCE40 FPGA family comprises ultra-low-density (ULD) devices whose low-cost, small footprint, and extremely small power consumption makes them ideal for a tremendous range of handheld and battery-powered applications. The iCE40 FPGAs are unusual in that they are SRAM-based, which allows them to be reprogrammed on the fly and/or loaded from an external device like an SPI Flash or a microcontroller. However, they also boast one-time programmable (OTP) non-volatile configuration capability, which allows them to be pre-programmed and to run "instant-on" without requiring external configuration.

Key Applications: timing-critical high-end remote controls and point of sale (POS) scan guns and data terminals, I/O expansion tasks for space-limited systems (e.g., servers, storage, and communications), hardware acceleration for factory automation, image pre-processing, and displays (e.g., rotation and scaling), and bridging functions (e.g., video interfacing, processor glue logic, and image sensor bridges).

Development Tools

The iCEstick Evaluation board is supported by Lattice iCEcube2™ design software for HDL development. Programing the onboard iCE40HX-1k device's SPI flash is done with Lattice Diamond Programmer.

iCEcube2™Software Tool

iCEcube2 software is the design environment for the Lattice iCE40 family of ultra-low density FPGA devices. The updated iCEcube2 software includes improvements that increase accuracy. For example, the new version of iCEcube2 software now includes final timing and power data that enable design analysis under worst case as well as typical conditions. The updated data also reflect wider temperature ranges to support both commercial and industrial devices, which gives designers greater confidence that their design will operate correctly in a variety of conditions. The power estimator also has improved data and algorithms that increase the accuracy of dynamic and static power calculations.

iCEcube2 software for Windows Operating System can be downloaded from the Lattice website, and is fully enabled at no cost with the Lattice Diamond free license.

Lattice Diamond Programmer

Lattice Diamond Programmer offers an easy to use solution for programming all Lattice JTAG-based devices. Diamond Programmer is fully integrated into Diamond and is also available as a standalone application. FPGAs supported in Lattice Diamond, devices from ispLEVER Classic, PAC-Designers, and iCEcube2 are supported by Programmer when used in standalone mode. Diamond Programmer tool simplifies the most common steps, including setting up device information (cable, port etc); selecting the programming data file to use, and single project supports programming single or multiple devices.

Technical Documents

Learning Center

Type	Description
User Manual	Lattice Semiconductor: User Manual for iCEstick Evaluation Kit
Datasheet	Lattice Semiconductor: Datasheet for CE40 LP/HX FPGA Family
Application Note	Lattice Semiconductor: Application Note on Memory Usage Guide for iCE40 Devices
Application Note	Lattice Semiconductor: Application Note for iCE40 sysCLOCK PLL Design/Usage Guide
Application Note	Lattice Semiconductor: Application Note on Using Differential I/O (LVDS, Sub-LVDS) in iCE40 Devices

Design Elements

Type	Description
Application Library	Lattice Semiconductor: Software code for iCEstick Default LED Rotation bitmap
Application Library	Lattice Semiconductor: Software code for iCEstick LED Rotation
Application Library	Lattice Semiconductor: Software code for IRDA UART RX
Application Library	Lattice Semiconductor: Software code for IRDA UART TX
Application Library	Lattice Semiconductor: Software code Pmod Accelerometer

Video

www.youtube.com/watch

Kit Features

Features of ICE40HX1K-STICK-EVNICE40HX1K-STICK-EVN Evaluation Kit:

USB thumb drive form factor
iCE40HX-1k on board
2 x 6 position Digilent Pmod™ connector for other peripheral connections
FTDI 2232H2232H USB device allows iCE device programming and UART interface to a PC
Vishay TFDU4101TFDU4101 IrDA transceiver
Five user LEDs
Discera 12 Mhz MEMS oscillator
Micron 32 Mbit N25Q32 SPI flash
USB connector provides the power supply
16 LVCMOS/LVTTL (3.3 V) digital I/O connections on 0.1” through-hole connections
iCEstick with Pmod™
- iCEstick contains a Digilent Pmod™ connector to attach various peripheral modules. The accelerometer reference design using Pmod™-ACL is an example. Purchased separately, this HDL design showcases how the iCE40 device interfaces to an acceleromter sensor, enabling the user to integrate additional sensors for their particular product.

Kit Contents

The Lattice Semiconductor ICE40HX1K-STICK-EVNICE40HX1K-STICK-EVN Evaluation kit supplied with below contents:

iCEstick Evaluation Board
Pre-loaded demo design – the kit includes the pre-loaded demo design that flashes the on-board LEDs in a clockwise pattern
USB connector – provides a communication and debug port via a USB-to-RS-232 physical channel and programming interface to the PC

Tags: icestick, lattice_semiconductor, icestick_fpga, ice40hx1k-stick-evn, lattice, icecube2, ice40, evaluation_kit