MORE ABOUT FPGA

Gone are the days of tech companies focusing solely on their core product offerings. Today, chip makers are working on artificial intelligence projects, IP vendors are investing in IoT security research, and social media giants are looking into silicon design (and even FPGAs). We believe these are positive signs pointing to a healthy, evolving industry. Let’s review some of the most compelling electronics industry news stories from the past week.

In this video, developer Riemer Grootjans explains several powerful features of the SmartScope. Starting with the mobile use with a tablet, he then demonstrates I2C decoding using a multiple temperature sensor board connected to a laptop PC, hooked up to the Smartscope as a logic analyzer. Further SPI decoding is briefly showed too, as well as recorded data export and arbitrary wave generator (AWG).

Researchers working at Linköping University in Sweden have developed an optimization process to give a five-fold boost in processing speed of a standard algorithm implemented in an FPGA...

Presented here is an FPGA-based digital signal processing board featuring everything necessary to do baseband processing of traditional narrowband modes like SSB/CW and AM. It solves many of the issues and limitations seen in simpler SDR platforms. Capable of transmitting as well as receiving, it provides a perfect foundation for a shortwave and/or VHF/UHF/SHF/microwave transceiver, ideal for scienti c, ham, and other serious radio applications.

It’s that time again – Elektor's July & August 2017 edition is now available for purchase! This issue is packed full of things to keep you entertained. You can get your printed copy posted direct to your door for free, with no shipping costs at all.

FPGA application design has never been easy and the fact that devices keep growing bigger and more powerful doesn’t help to improve the situation. More powerful devices result in more demanding applications which in return lead to even more powerful devices, an infernal loop (VICIEUZE CIRKEL). The engineers developing these increasingly complex applications do not have the time to study in detail the hardware that makes it all possible, and so, to help them out, hardware manufacturers provide high-level tools, libraries, stacks, IP blocks, and the like.

The engineers at Red Pitaya have updated and expanded their product line. All the boards are now called STEMlab, so the original Red Pitaya has been renamed STEMlab 125-14. It also has a little brother now, named STEMlab 125-10. We spent some time in the Elektor Labs playing with one of the first available prototypes of the STEMlab 125-10.

The SmartScope is an especially handy and affordable USB oscilloscope, logic analyzer and signal generator. Internally the SmartScope is built around a powerful Xilinx Spartan 6 FPGA, which also makes it suitable for use as an FPGA development platform. Elektor is now offering the unique SmartScope Maker Kit, which includes a special version of the SmartScope and two programmers with suitable cables.

We had heard about Software Defined Radio (SDR), Networking (SDN) and Storage (SDS), but Software Defined Programming? Isn’t programming software-defined by definition? Apparently not, according to FPGA manufacturer Xilinx who recently introduced its SDSoC development environment and extended it just now with support for the Zynq Ultrascale+ MPSoC. Looking closer, Software Defined Programming seems to be a pretty exciting technology.

Many readers will be aware that I am not, unlike my colleagues here at Elektor, a trained engineer. I have certainly been surprised by many things since I started work here over ten years ago with Ernst Krempelsauer. One concept that’s always fascinated me is the seemingly limitless potential of FPGAs. Engineers can describe a system in software and with the click of a mouse button...