[Noisebridge-discuss] Interest check: HDL/FPGA for noobs class?

[Henner Zeller]

On 2 April 2013 16:58, Robert "Finny" Merrill <rfmerrill at berkeley.edu>wrote:

> And as for I/O I don't see why we can't just interface it with the
> raspberry pis and arduinos that everyone already has for that kind of
> thing, and just use the FPGA to do things that FPGAs are particularly good
> at.
>
> Projects I was thinking of:
> - SPI to I2C bridge
> - Vocoder (two I2S inputs, one I2S or SPDIF output)
> - Logic analyzer?
>

More rough ideas:
- Generally, I think a Logic analyzer project would be great as it is a
good 'entry drug'. Also should be fairly simple (could have some local RAM
as temporary storage and send back to host machine for display)
- Since we have security interested people: maybe implementing some
brute-force symmetric encryption algorithm cracker to see how it performs
(probably not that fast with an entry level board with slow clock, but at
multiple 'processes' can run in parallel).
- Bitcoin generation.
- Maybe some FFT stuff ? While this might be the primary domain for signal
processors, it might be a good way to explore parallelism.
- I personally like to have something to generate some frame-buffer PWMed
to a LED board ( what I do here in software on non-realtime Linux RPi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FCyhuT7fIE ). Ben Kochie and I were
thinking about assembling a bigger board for Noisebridge.


>
> On Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 4:56 PM, Robert "Finny" Merrill <
> rfmerrill at berkeley.edu> wrote:
>
>> (it's on the other side)
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 4:55 PM, Robert "Finny" Merrill <
>> rfmerrill at berkeley.edu> wrote:
>>
>>> That board has a clock source on it
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 4:41 PM, M. Elizabeth Scott <beth at scanlime.org>wrote:
>>>
>>>> That board may be a good start, but to design useful things you'll need
>>>> a clock source and probably a little I/O. If folks in the class are using
>>>> breadboards, the clock could be a "metal can" oscillator module.
>>>>
>>>> If possible, I'd recommend getting a slightly more featureful board
>>>> though, especially for educational purposes. I like the KNJN.com boards.
>>>> Their "Saxo" board includes USB 2.0 (via a microcontroller you can choose
>>>> to program or not) and a clock source. It's a little more expensive at $60,
>>>> but still in the same ballpark:
>>>>
>>>> http://www.knjn.com/ShopBoards_USB2.html
>>>>
>>>> If you can find a cheap board with a VGA output (or build a cheap R-2R
>>>> ladder on a breadboard), I've found that video is a really fun way to learn
>>>> FPGA development. I'm a visual learner, and it helped a lot to be able to
>>>> build video signals in real-time :)
>>>>
>>>> -m
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 3:04 PM, Robert "Finny" Merrill <
>>>> rfmerrill at berkeley.edu> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> This is what I have:
>>>>> http://www.ebay.com/itm/251215580947?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
>>>>>
>>>>> I figure gate/LUT count isn't a big deal because even a small FPGA is
>>>>> fairly useful
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 8:23 AM, John Ellis <neurofog at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> +1
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Shouldn't we standardize on a cheapish FPGA board though. I'll do
>>>>>> some research to whats available for under $50
>>>>>> The mojo is $75 + shipping, kind of okay price for a Spartan 6 chip,
>>>>>> but low in LUT/Gate count.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -John
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 8:07 AM, Danny O'Brien <danny at spesh.com>wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> +1
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 5:07 AM, Henner Zeller <h.zeller at acm.org>wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> +1
>>>>>>>> On Apr 1, 2013 10:43 PM, "Robert "Finny" Merrill" <
>>>>>>>> rfmerrill at berkeley.edu> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I've got a decent handle on this stuff and it seems like a lot of
>>>>>>>>> people at NB are interested but few are experienced.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>>>>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>>>>>>>>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
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>>>>>>
>>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
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