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Comment by 15155

2 days ago

> they're complicated to put down on boards

https://gowinsemi.com/en/product/detail/46/

- Requires just 1V2 + 3V3

- Available in QFN

- Bitstream is saved in internal flash or programmed to SRAM via a basic JTAG sequence

https://www.efinixinc.com/products-trion.html

> Contact Sales

> Request Sample

> Please login to download the document.

I mean, yeah. My argument isn't that anything is impossible. My argument is that all of this is harder than it needs to be and this is not countering me!

  • This is your job, and it really shouldn't feel difficult. This is really not tedious: the minimum board design for these chips literally consists of just power, JTAG pins, and a clock (if the internal oscillator isn't good enough.)

    The Gowin FPGAs are available (at a massive premium) from Mouser, just like whatever MCU you are already using. Many are available for <$1-2 in China. Efinix are available from DigiKey, with some SKUs under <$10.

    All of the Gowin documentation is available on their site with a free, approval-less email login and no NDA, or via Google directly (PDFs, just like Xilinx, even numbered similarly.)

    • > All of the Gowin documentation is available on their site with a free, approval-less email login

      The problem is trust. I'm hesitant to hand out my e-mail anywhere because far too often I have been hounded by salespeople as a result, not to mention data breaches or bombardment of newsletters.

      2 replies →

The Altera Max 10 devices are also relatively simple to support (flash on the chip, few power rails, etc.)