STEP-MXO2 Development Board Provides Entryway to Learning FPGA

FPGAs can be difficult to learn, but projects like STEP-MXO2 — a small, breadboard-friendly 40-pin development board — look to lower the barrier to entry.

The STEP-MX02's compact form factor makes it a formidable platform for digital logic circuits and Micro32 embedded soft-core processor designs. Both robust and easy to learn, the board is based on Lattice MachXO2 FPGA and features a USB-JTAG programming circuit, clock source, two digital displays, and more. 36 digital FPGA I/O signals routed to 100-mil-spaced through-hole pins enable you to integrate your programmable design directly into a solderless breadboard circuit. Measuring only 0.72 x 2.05 inches, it can be loaded in a standard socket and used in embedded systems.

Targeted specifically at educational purposes, the board also comes with learning materials suitable for beginners — a QuickStart guide, user manual, schematic documentation, and demos. Its design lends itself to rich features and expandable options, as well. Numerous system functions are included, such as two PLLs and 10 Kbits of embedded RAM, plus hardened implementations of I2C and user flash memory. The kit ships with just the board and QuickStart guide, but full hardware and software documentation is available via GitHub.

Software documentation is provided as well. The STEP-MX02 is built around Lattice Diamond design software, which can be used with either a free or subscription license and offers design and implementation tools optimized for cost-sensitive, low-power Lattice FPGA architectures. The software allows for easy design explorations, along with extensive constraints, advanced optimization, accurate analysis, extensive verification, and fast iterations that let users to evaluate multiple solutions and select the optimal one.

Altogether, you can get a fully operational development kit for $55, give or take shipping and tax, or you can check out the source code and schematics for yourself.