SRKH Designs launch NovaPi NP01 – a stackable Virtex-5 FPGA hat for Raspberry Pi

SRKH Designs will launch NovaPi NP01 on Kickstarter 01Aug19. NP01 is the most powerful and stackable FPGA hat for a Raspberry Pi yet made, with Xilinx’s Virtex-5. NP01 can also operate standalone as an FPGA dev board.

Explore state machine ability, pre- and co-processing, low latency trading, large scale parallel peripheral and IP block interfacing… and more. The user can program NP01 to suit their desired development concept in VHDL or Verilog. NP01 comes programmed with a demo example, however is designed for experienced users to create their own projects. Schematics and User Constraint files are available now for download, and a series of test projects will be provided at www.nova-pi.com.

A limited run of 25 boards will be made.

• Large fabric fast FPGA device
• 4x Digilent HS Pmod™ compatible headers, 1x SDRAM & 2x independent SRAM ICs
• Suitable for development in Verilog and VHDL
• Multiple boards can be stacked on Raspberry Pi either in series (eg bus interpretation) or in parallel (eg bus decoding, multiple interfacing)
• RPi IOT-enabled FPGA

Low power wide operating voltage 3.3V-6V

NP01 is designed with battery applications in mind, allowing operation between 3.3V – 6V with reverse polarity protection. Capable of operating down to 3.3V thanks to the 100% duty cycle capability of the TPS82 series DC/DC converter.

NP01 is optimized for low power by disabling the power-heavy Virtex-5 high speed rocket IO circuitry. Due to the board’s low power operation it can be powered by the RPi header pins and also operate with the RPi 5V connected power supply.

Working as either a Raspberry Pi Hat or Standalone Development Board

1. NP01 + Raspberry Pi – IOT-enabled FPGA – a powerful resource for developing new applications where fast, complex logic enables technologies. Use it for porting activities with NP01’s large amount of resources, high speed capability and generous IO (eg port projects from Intel (Altera), MicroSemi (Actel) to Xilinx). Or build multiple NP01s into a stackable, modular system.

2. NP01 Standalone – Great for FPGA independent applications eg designs based on soft core processors (MicroBlaze, TSK3000, 6502, Z80) in conjunction with PMOD-based peripherals for the creation of complete systems.

Kickstarter Preview

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1962283735/novapi-np01-a-stackable-virtex-5-fpga-hat-for-raspberry-pi?ref=9orwd6&token=9a03bf4e

Media

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XJkEX2RxqC_lJNec38IF_KzvWGpkvFUi?usp=sharing

NP01 Specifications

• Xilinx Virtex-5 LX50, 1136-FCBGA, 46080 Logic Cells, 3600 LAB/CLBs, 2211840 RAM bits, 480 IOs
• 4x 12POS Digilent HS PMOD-compatible headers supporting plug-&-play hardware modules
• 32MB SDRAM (16MB x 16) Alliance memory IC, parallel 167MHz 5.4ns 54-TSOP II
• 2x 512KB high speed 10ns SRAMs configured as 2 private bus 256KB x 16 memories
• 4x (2x set, 2x programmable) LEDs (1x blue, 1x orange, 2x green)
• Push button
• Microchip LVDS clock, low jitter ±10ppm frequency stability, 150MHz frequency
• RPi GPIO IN FPGA IO input
• RPi GPIO OUT FPGA-controlled RPi colour-coded header output
• Micron SPI flash memory IC for auto-loading bitstream into FPGA, 128Mb (16M x 8), 133MHz (and user accessible after FPGA has loaded)
• standard Xilinx JTAG header (XPT029)
• 200x 1mm Tinned and accessible test points for ‘dead bug’ interfacing
• 3x Onboard power supplies: 3.3V @ 3A, 2.5V @3A, 1.0V @3A

About SRKH Designs

SRKH Designs produce complex leading edge electronic hardware and systems.