No, its not the Diwali sweet — its the easiest way to start learning FPGA.
The best part is how simple it feels.No complicated setup. No messy pin configurations.
Just connect the blocks, and deploy your digital circuits directly to the FPGA, without writing complex HDL⤵︎
FPGAs are very powerful…but let’s be honest — getting started is very painful.
Too complex.Too many tools.Too many things that can go wrong.
And this is exactly where most people give up.
One day, Piyush Itankar and I were discussing this same problem and he said: “What if we build our own FPGA board?”
Not another board for experts, but something designed for people who just want to start. So we decided to build it.
Over the next 8 months, we designed, tested, failed, and improved — step by step.
And finally, Soan Papdi was born.
A board where you don’t fight the complex setup — just connect and deploy your ideas on real hardware.
Excited to try this yourself?Get your Soan Papdi now: Link
Why this Design ?This board is built for learning.
On the top, there are 8 yellow LEDs (D7 to D0) ⤵︎
These LEDs are not random random, we choose 8 LEDs because 8-bit data is very common.
So when you build things like counters or state machines, you can directly see the output on these LEDs.
Right next to them, we have 4 white LEDs, these are for status signals, things like carry, overflow can be shown here. ⤵︎
At the bottom, we have two sets of switches:
Set A: A3 to A0
Set B: B3 to B0
Using these switches, you can input two 4-bit numbers into your circuit.Now you can add, subtract, and instantly see the result on the LEDs.
No simulation, just real, visual feedback.
On the right side, there are 10 GPIO pins. These let you connect external components like sensors or modules. ⤵︎
For example, here an IR sensor is connected to control the all LEDs (D0-D7).
This is where, things get really interesting, you can connect external sensors, display or even your own custom hardware, with Soan Papdi possibilities are endless.
This is where it gets really interesting. You’re not limited to just the board, you can connect sensors, displays, or even your own custom hardware.
With Soan Papdi, you can interact with the real world.
Want to try this yourself?
Get your Soan Papdi board: Link
The heart of the Soan Papdi board is the Lattice iCE40UP5K FPGA.
We choose this FPGA for one simple reason, the open-source community loves it. It’s easy to program using open-source tools, making it perfect for learning.And besides all of this, it has enough LUTs(logical units) to deploy the RISC-V CPU.
FPGAs from the same iCE40 family have even been used by Apple in the iPhone7.
iPhone 7 Teardown: PDF Link (Page-32)
You might be thinking, FPGAs are complex, but getting started is actually easy.
To make it easier, Piyush has created a Digital Electronics 101 course, where he explains everything step by step.
Soan Papdi FPGA 101 course by Piyush: Link
You can also start by exploring builtin examples in iCE Studio. ⤵︎
Start simple, with basic gates like AND, OR, or a decoder.
And once you’re comfortable, you can move on to more advanced projects like running a RISC-V CPU.
RISC V CPU Example in iCE Studio Repo: Link
Start your FPGA journey with Soan Papdi.
Get started: https://pages.razorpay.com/soanpapdi
Specification1. FPGA: Lattice iCE40UP5KFPGA
2. Datasheet: Link
3. Logic Resources: 5280 LUTs
4. Embedded Memory: 120 Kbit Embedded Block RAM
5. SPRAM: 1 Mbit (128 KB) Single-Port SPRAM
6. Clocking: On-chip PLL
7. Hard IP: 2 × SPI, 2 × I²C
8. Internal Oscillators: 10 kHz and 48 MHz
9. DSP Resources: 8 DSP multiplier blocks
10. CPU: Capable of hosting RISC-V soft-core CPUs
11. Onboard Storage: 128 Mbitonboard Flash memory
12. User Interface:
a) 8 × 3.0 mm LEDs(through-hole)
b) 4 × SMD LEDs
c) 8 x DIP switches
d) 2 push buttons (Programming & Reset)
e) 10 x I/O pins for ext. sensors & peripherals.
13. USB: USB-C fully controlled by FPGA (no ext. MCU)
14. Programming: Programmable via preloaded DFU bootloader.
15. Toolchain Support: Open-source toolchains including Yosys, nextpnr, IceStorm, Icarus Verilog, and Amaranth HDL.
If you’re programming Soan Papdi using Verilog, you can use this pin diagram to map pins in your .pcf file.
View image in full size: Link
Buy NowWant to start your FPGA journey the simple way? Get your Soan Papdi board and start building today.
Buy Now: Link
Order it before the stock runs out.
Need Help?Have questions or stuck somewhere? Feel free to reach out, happy to help. 🙂
Email: hardikseth1975@gmail.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardik-seth-8687b7201/
WhatsApp/Contact: +91 9026278822
Comments