3 ms·

What about FPGAs? I feel like they could solve so much of this problem if the tools were better. Though I haven't used them since college, so I have no idea wha

by zaius 14y ago

What about FPGAs? I feel like they could solve so much of this problem if the tools were better. Though I haven't used them since college, so I have no idea what the current status is.

joezydeco 14y ago
FPGA are not what I would recommend for a "what-do-we-do-after-Arduino" type of device. Hell, FPGAs are Jedi-Master class devices as far as I see it. This is the kind of firepower you call in when you have something that no off-the-shelf micro can do, like emulate an obsolete processor, or put 128 of them on one chip, or hash Bitcoins, image processing, etc etc etc.
- zaius 14y ago
  Ah, no I didn't mean FPGAs as the next step for implementation, I meant more as a development tool. For example, it would be cool if there was some sort of software that would let you design multiple-chip setups that would usually require breadboarding, but then run the whole circuit on the FPGA. That design could be transformed straight into a PCB that's ready for fab with the discrete components.
  - joezydeco 14y ago
    Ah, I see. But, of course, the practical-engineer part of my brain reads that and says "well, if it's working on the FPGA, ship the FPGA!" =) I actually see a lot of potential in devices like the aforementioned Cypress PSoC. If you're not familiar, the PSoC family involves chips that have a core microcontroller with ram and Flash but also have a number of analog blocks inside as well. ADCs, capsense, op-amps, logic gates, muxes, comparators, timers, etc. You can use the Cypress IDE to wire the components up and connect them to I/O pins. The IDE can generate your configuration, or you can optionally reconfigure the chip while running via internal registers. So it's kind of like an FPGA-type solution as you suggested. When you start developing with these chips, you're really creating hardware from software. It's interesting stuff.

by zaius 14y ago

What about FPGAs? I feel like they could solve so much of this problem if the tools were better. Though I haven't used them since college, so I have no idea what the current status is.

joezydeco 14y ago

FPGA are not what I would recommend for a "what-do-we-do-after-Arduino" type of device. Hell, FPGAs are Jedi-Master class devices as far as I see it. This is the kind of firepower you call in when you have something that no off-the-shelf micro can do, like emulate an obsolete processor, or put 128 of them on one chip, or hash Bitcoins, image processing, etc etc etc.

zaius 14y ago
Ah, no I didn't mean FPGAs as the next step for implementation, I meant more as a development tool. For example, it would be cool if there was some sort of software that would let you design multiple-chip setups that would usually require breadboarding, but then run the whole circuit on the FPGA. That design could be transformed straight into a PCB that's ready for fab with the discrete components.
- joezydeco 14y ago
  Ah, I see. But, of course, the practical-engineer part of my brain reads that and says "well, if it's working on the FPGA, ship the FPGA!" =) I actually see a lot of potential in devices like the aforementioned Cypress PSoC. If you're not familiar, the PSoC family involves chips that have a core microcontroller with ram and Flash but also have a number of analog blocks inside as well. ADCs, capsense, op-amps, logic gates, muxes, comparators, timers, etc. You can use the Cypress IDE to wire the components up and connect them to I/O pins. The IDE can generate your configuration, or you can optionally reconfigure the chip while running via internal registers. So it's kind of like an FPGA-type solution as you suggested. When you start developing with these chips, you're really creating hardware from software. It's interesting stuff.