Comment by bit-hack
11 hours ago
The main reason is just due to me knowing my own limitations. SRAM is really simple to interface with and i've not yet tried to write a DRAM controller since its much more complex. Putting SRAM on the board made me more confident about the project. I did have it in mind that I could try to use the DRAM in place of the SRAM at a later stage (as you suggest) as a good way to focus on learning how to use it.
Really cool, I figured that was the case and I'd be in the same boat.
I have an ice40UP5k board but I quickly ran out of block ram and LUTS whenever trying to use it for anything substantial, but seeing this project has me itching to start something around one of these icesugar pro boards. yosys & nextpnr support made things really damn easy when I was working with the ice40.