4 ms·

Not for sale, not available... wonder where this $5 price is coming from?

thomasrossi 11y ago
production cost maybe? But yea, I wonder too. Anyways, it would be really nice for mining strange algorithms, especially if at that "price"
- unwind 11y ago
  I (scare-)quoted the price in the title now, to indicate that it's not very certain. The FPGA in question seems to cost less than $2 here in Sweden in unit quantities (from Digi-Key: http://www.digikey.se/product-detail/en/ICE40UL1K-SWG16ITR50/220-1960-1-ND/5129490 http://www.digikey.se/product-detail/en/ICE40UL1K-SWG16ITR50...), so at least that component by itself doesn't have to blow up the parts cost.
- steckerbrett 11y ago
  No, this is targeted towards consumer, mobile devices. For cryptographic use you want small process, high bin, typically extremely large and expensive chips. The thing has integrated LED drivers, it's about as far from what you want for that application as you can get.
  - pjc50 11y ago
    Quite handy for covert data exfiltration by modulating a "power" LED, though.
    - steckerbrett 11y ago
      Probably easier to use the GPIO in your micro controller to transmit it with RF, unless you've also designed a Faraday cage phone.
    - Sanddancer 11y ago
      The UART on this speaks IrDA natively, which would be a much more attractive target for covert exfiltration.
zombees 11y ago
ice40UL1K is a $1.60 for a single bga unit on digikey. Probably well under a dollar wholesale. Add in a few cents for a crystal, some capacitors, pin headers, a vreg, and the pcb, probably costs $1-2 to produce. I should mention that someone capable of doing hobby level bga work could easily make their own at around $30 through a pcb batching service. In terms of electronic complexity, it looks pretty trivial.
- jacquesm 11y ago
  Didn't you mean $3?
  - zombees 11y ago
    Instead of 30? No, it typically costs a lot to do one-off pcbs. Even through a batching service (where you share a large panel with other people), they'll still usually make you pay for a few of them. Also, all of the components are going to cost way more if you just want to buy one of each. Headers are tenths of a cent per pin but from digikey you'll probably have to buy a strip for a dollar or so. Likewise with crystals, vregs and caps.
    - openchip 11y ago
      its 4 layer PCB with 275 micron via pad and 75 micron mechanical drill. I am not joking our PCB fab confirmed its doable technology for them.
      - tcas 11y ago
        I think many PCB fabs will say they can do it, the question is how much they will charge. 75 micron drill is crazy.
        openchip 11y ago
        PCB confirmed the "DIPSY easysolder PCB" deliver on 20th july, this is special downgraded version of the PCB, 2 layers, drill 0.15, trace space 50 micron..
openchip 11y ago
5USD is doable ball-park figure. Doable price even if using our own in-house manufacturing in Germany. Volume production in Asia can be way below of course.

production cost maybe? But yea, I wonder too. Anyways, it would be really nice for mining strange algorithms, especially if at that "price"

unwind 11y ago
I (scare-)quoted the price in the title now, to indicate that it's not very certain. The FPGA in question seems to cost less than $2 here in Sweden in unit quantities (from Digi-Key: http://www.digikey.se/product-detail/en/ICE40UL1K-SWG16ITR50/220-1960-1-ND/5129490 http://www.digikey.se/product-detail/en/ICE40UL1K-SWG16ITR50...), so at least that component by itself doesn't have to blow up the parts cost.
steckerbrett 11y ago
No, this is targeted towards consumer, mobile devices. For cryptographic use you want small process, high bin, typically extremely large and expensive chips. The thing has integrated LED drivers, it's about as far from what you want for that application as you can get.
- pjc50 11y ago
  Quite handy for covert data exfiltration by modulating a "power" LED, though.
  - steckerbrett 11y ago
    Probably easier to use the GPIO in your micro controller to transmit it with RF, unless you've also designed a Faraday cage phone.
  - Sanddancer 11y ago
    The UART on this speaks IrDA natively, which would be a much more attractive target for covert exfiltration.

zombees 11y ago

ice40UL1K is a $1.60 for a single bga unit on digikey. Probably well under a dollar wholesale. Add in a few cents for a crystal, some capacitors, pin headers, a vreg, and the pcb, probably costs $1-2 to produce. I should mention that someone capable of doing hobby level bga work could easily make their own at around $30 through a pcb batching service. In terms of electronic complexity, it looks pretty trivial.

jacquesm 11y ago
Didn't you mean $3?
- zombees 11y ago
  Instead of 30? No, it typically costs a lot to do one-off pcbs. Even through a batching service (where you share a large panel with other people), they'll still usually make you pay for a few of them. Also, all of the components are going to cost way more if you just want to buy one of each. Headers are tenths of a cent per pin but from digikey you'll probably have to buy a strip for a dollar or so. Likewise with crystals, vregs and caps.
  - openchip 11y ago
    its 4 layer PCB with 275 micron via pad and 75 micron mechanical drill. I am not joking our PCB fab confirmed its doable technology for them.
    - tcas 11y ago
      I think many PCB fabs will say they can do it, the question is how much they will charge. 75 micron drill is crazy.
      - openchip 11y ago
        PCB confirmed the "DIPSY easysolder PCB" deliver on 20th july, this is special downgraded version of the PCB, 2 layers, drill 0.15, trace space 50 micron..

openchip 11y ago

5USD is doable ball-park figure. Doable price even if using our own in-house manufacturing in Germany. Volume production in Asia can be way below of course.