ULX3S: Hackable FPGA that runs Linux on RISC-V • Hacker News Board

Re: ULX3S: Hackable FPGA that runs Linux on RISC-V

#11

Post by TD-Linux » Sat, Jun 13, 2020, 11:33 PM UTC

q3k wrote: post #4

The ULX3S is great! I built myself an early prototype a year ago, and have used it every so often for occasional hacks. It has since evolved to be a first-class citizen in a number of projects and frameworks (LiteX, including LiteDRAM), which makes it great to get started with. Also worth noting, that you can use a fully open source flow (Yoys + nextpnr + prjtrellis) for this FPGA family. Here's a repository I made t…

Yeah I also DIY'd one and it makes an excellent dev kit - the right combo of peripherals in a small footprint. It also has a lot of IO's on normal 0.1" headers so it's a good starting point if you want to stack it on top of another prototype PCB. Your blinky was actually the first code I ran on it.

Re: ULX3S: Hackable FPGA that runs Linux on RISC-V

#12

Post by tyingq » Sat, Jun 13, 2020, 11:35 PM UTC

Where's the article? I see mostly a bunch of loosely related bullet points.

Edit: After a lot of back and forth, perhaps this is a good intro: https://hackaday.com/2019/01/14/ulx3s-an-open-source-lattice...

Re: ULX3S: Hackable FPGA that runs Linux on RISC-V

#13

Post by TD-Linux » Sat, Jun 13, 2020, 11:35 PM UTC

rasz wrote: post #7

2x more resources compared to $30 https://github.com/q3k/chubby75 at 5x the price

The Hub75 boards are great, but aren't really comparable to the ulx3s as they have extremely limited I/O options (a whole ton of output-only TTL level shifters, + 2 gigabit interfaces). Great if your project fits into those constraints, but few projects do. Plus they are only available with 25F size parts whereas the ulx3s is available with a 85F part.

Re: ULX3S: Hackable FPGA that runs Linux on RISC-V

#14

Post by inamberclad » Sat, Jun 13, 2020, 11:36 PM UTC

sreevisakh wrote: post #10

herogreen wrote: post #2

Also newsworthy: Lattice drops recent EULA clause forbidding fpga bitstream reverse engineering https://hackaday.com/2020/06/06/lattice-drops-eula-clause-fo... therefore 2020 could be a milestone for open FPGA toolchains!

A developer of Symbiflow toolchain once described Lattice Semi as very friendly and cooperative towards them [1]. I was wondering why they suddenly changed their attitude. It may have been a clause that they introduced without giving much thought. Happy to see that at least one vendor has the right idea about tooling. [1] https://youtu.be/0se7kNes3EU?t=1367

Hackaday comments were hypothesizing that they outsource tool development to some other company.

Re: ULX3S: Hackable FPGA that runs Linux on RISC-V

#15

Post by ChuckMcM » Sat, Jun 13, 2020, 11:36 PM UTC

q3k wrote: post #4

The ULX3S is great! I built myself an early prototype a year ago, and have used it every so often for occasional hacks. It has since evolved to be a first-class citizen in a number of projects and frameworks (LiteX, including LiteDRAM), which makes it great to get started with. Also worth noting, that you can use a fully open source flow (Yoys + nextpnr + prjtrellis) for this FPGA family. Here's a repository I made t…

It is the fully open design flow that I really enjoy. I have a couple of IceBreakers[1] which have a smaller Lattice part and they are quite capable. I find the addition of the ESP32 compelling as an interesting "hard" processor.

Re: ULX3S: Hackable FPGA that runs Linux on RISC-V

#16

Post by johan_larson » Sat, Jun 13, 2020, 11:37 PM UTC

The dollar sign comes before the number, not after it.

$150

Re: ULX3S: Hackable FPGA that runs Linux on RISC-V

#17

Post by craftinator » Sat, Jun 13, 2020, 11:42 PM UTC

johan_larson wrote: post #16

The dollar sign comes before the number, not after it. $150

Truly, a pedant's pedant.

Re: ULX3S: Hackable FPGA that runs Linux on RISC-V

#18

Post by aspenmayer » Sat, Jun 13, 2020, 11:43 PM UTC

rasz wrote: post #7

2x more resources compared to $30 https://github.com/q3k/chubby75 at 5x the price

What is your pick for the best FPGA for the money or if money is no object? I just don’t know much about this area outside the MiSTer project.

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_MiSTer/wiki

https://www.retrorgb.com/mister.html

Re: ULX3S: Hackable FPGA that runs Linux on RISC-V

#19

Post by dmitrygr » Sat, Jun 13, 2020, 11:53 PM UTC

bloopernova wrote: post #6

Layman question: how many years before we get RISC-V desktops or Raspberry Pi like computers?

A decade at least. Nobody is mass producing consumer boards with RISCV. RasPi only happened cause broadcom had some very old chips to dump.

Re: ULX3S: Hackable FPGA that runs Linux on RISC-V

#20

Post by shoo » Sat, Jun 13, 2020, 11:58 PM UTC

pmiller2 wrote: post #5

dmos62 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I initially misunderstood this headline to mean the opposite: I took "drops" to mean "introduces", which is the opposite of the intended meaning -- "withdraws". Not sure where I got this non-mainstream meaning of "to drop".

People do talk about “dropping” an album to indicate it’s being released. Your confusion is somewhat understandable. English is hard. :(

similarly, dropping off supplies or deliveries -- maybe where they are dropped from a great height via parachute out of a plane. Or dropped off by a delivery truck.

"Lattice drops recent EULA clause" would be easier to interpret if the initial and final altitude of the clause was specified. If the initial altitude was unusually high, it might indicate that the clause was being introduced via parachute. If the initial altitude was comparable to the altitude of an object being held in a person's hands, and the final altitude ground level, this would suggest the clause being discarded or removed.