I’m finally getting back into Framework development after taking a break due to burnout, so I decided to start working on an idea I’ve had for a little while, which was an Expansion Bay module with an Artix 7 and some DDR3 memory. I’m pretty much finished with the schematic and will start working on the PCB design once I finalise my DDR3 pinout (Vivado takes a while to install). Since I’ve never worked with FPGAs before, this will be more of a learning project than anything but if there is some interest in the community I may produce a couple (the FPGA alone is $80USD from Digi-Key). I was originally planning on making this as a hardware accelerator but we will see.
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This sounds really interesting. I look forward to seeing where this goes.
Hi.
If you also added some IO to it. Similar to the dev boards:
E.g. having a SFP, FMC and SMA port on it would be good. Also some of the IO pins accessible.
There are various USB linkable FPGA boards, so you could experiment with those first.
E.g. ALINX AX7035 FPGA Development Board
Then see if they have enough power to do the things you would like to do with a FPGA.
You might find them too small, and thus need a larger FPGA to do what you want.
I guess I am saying, experiment with the existing FPGA boards out there before making your own one.
FPGA Boards, Kits, and Modules
I would be interested in any expansion board that added 10G Fibre ethernet to the Framework 16.