Lattice iCE40 FPGA Journey

As part of my post on MCUs, I added a Lattice iCE40 FPGA to the mix. While I have done a little bit of work with FPGAs in the past, it has been purely on the use of development boards (e.g., Digilent Arty). I've now started to dig deeper into FPGA -- from the PCB on up. I will use this post to capture some of my initial journey with the iCE40. Check back for updates! If you have suggestions on anything here, please drop me a note. Thanks!

I'm starting out with a Lattice iCE40HX4K-TQ144.

I upgraded the board to 1MB of SRAM.

I have ordered a couple of ICE40HX8K-CT256 ICs. These use a 256-pin BGA package with a 0.8mm pitch. I am currently researching fanout and routing for this BGA package and JLCPCB capabilities related to BGA routing. Possibly helpful resources:

• BGA Design Guidelines - PCB Layout Recommendations for BGA packages (jlcpcb.com)

• PCB Manufacturing & Assembly Capabilities - JLCPCB

• EasyEDA Pro Fanout

• PCB Layout Recommendations for BGA Packages (Lattice Technical Note TN1074)

• AN10778 PCB layout guidelines for NXP MCUs in BGA packages

• ...

I've received some very help feedback on my FPGA PCB design and have started a "to do" list below. Look for these changes in future updates. Thank you to everyone who has supplied the great feedback. It helps me learn rapidly and results in a better final solution!

A couple of VGA-related resources:

• The Go Board - VGA Introduction (Test Patterns) (nandland.com)

• VGA 640x480 ISA Card (rehsdonline.com)

• VGA Test Patterns Verilog - EDA Playground

• VGA Signal 640 x 480 @ 60 Hz Industry standard timing (tinyvga.com)

My Shopping List

This is just a spot for me to note parts I'll need to order to support my to do list. :)

• LT3504 and supporting components

  • CDRH5D28 fixed inductors: 10uH, 6.8uH, 4.7uH, 3.3uH

  • PMEG4010CEJ,115 Schottky diode

  • Zener diodes: BZT52C36

  • BSC010N04LSIATMA1 MOSFET

• ICE40HX4K-BG121

• ...

Additional Resources

• iCE40 LP/HX Family Data Sheet

• Lattice HDL Synthesis Coding Guidelines for Lattice Semiconductor FPGAs - TN1008

• iCE40 Pinout

• iCE40 Hardware Checklist

• iCE40 Programming and Configuration

• iCE40-HX8K Breakout Board

• Lattice HW-USBN-2B Programmer

• ICE40HX1K-STICK-EVN Evaluation Board

• John's Basement YouTube Playlist: FPGA

• Kéfir Project

• IceZero FPGA Board for RaspPi – Black Mesa Labs

• iCE40HX1K-EVB - Open Source Hardware Board (olimex.com)

• Nandland: FPGA, VHDL, Verilog Examples & Tutorials

• Common Mistakes in DC/DC Converters and How to Fix Them (ti.com)

GitHub Files

• FPGA/Lattice iCE40 at main · rehsd/FPGA (github.com)