FPGA MARK-1

The FPGA MARK-1 is the 1st and only FPGA platform designed with students, makers, hobbyists and mad scientists in mind. FPGA tools have traditionally been expensive and require investment into proprietary programmers with little in the way of standardized expansion options. Couple that with the fact a lot of FPGA boards can be very complex and overwhelming to a new user. The MARK-1 aims to provide a low cost platform for makers to give FPGA development a try.

Feature set:

• Drag and Drop programming! The MARK-1 will show up as a thumb drive. Simply copy your FPGA bitstream file to the device and you are done. Use the direct output of the FPGA tools!  No JTAG tools Needed.  No file conversion tools needed.
• Unbrickable! The MCU (LPC1343) used for configuration includes a ROM based bootloader for upgrading, hacking and general fiddling around with.
• The MARK-1 comes fitted with a power Xilinx Spartan - 6 LX9 device. Plenty of room for all of your projects.  Xilinx Webpack is freely available for Windows and Linux.
• The MARK-1 can also be used as a general development tool for the NXP LPC1343 microcontroller. Both the FPGA and MCU are accessible through a USB interface
• Arduino Compatible! Headers with +5v tolerant I/O
• 6 P-MOD ports. Digilent Inc has lots of low cost expansion boards (LCDs, D/As, Ethernet interfaces, etc) that directly plug into the MARK-1 . Endless expansion options!
• On-board I/O for debugging/test includes 4 push buttons, 8 LEDs and 8 dipswitches
• On-Board FT230X for USB-Serial to the FPGA
• 50MHz oscillator that can be easily stepped up or down in the FPGA.  Imagine synthesizing a bunch of 8-bit MCUs that run at 100Mhz!
• Parallel Interface between MCu and FPGA available for cool projects.
• ADC data from LPC1343 can be routed to FPGA via Parallel Bus
• Dedicated FPGA I/O have low pass filter for PWM/Sigma Delta DAC
• Open Source.  All Hardware/Software will be available via Google Code.
• Plenty of examples will be provided to get you started.   Some will directly compatible with the "Pong-Chu" book http://www.amazon.com/FPGA-Prototyping-Verilog-Examples-Spartan-3/dp/0470185325

Click Here to get the Latest Hardware Documentation Package for a sneak peak.

Google Code Repository: Coming Soon.

Come to 2012 Marker World Maker Faire to see it in person.  Live demos and training will be available on site to get you started with FPGA development!