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Alchitry Au FPGA Development Board (Xilinx Artix 7)
The Alchitry Au is the "gold" standard for FPGA development boards and it's possibly one of the strongest boards of its type on the market. FPGAs, or Field-Programmable Gate Arrays, are an advanced development board type for engineers and hobbyists alike to experience the next step in programming with electronics. The Au continues the trend of more affordable and increasingly powerful FPGA boards arriving each year. This board is a fantastic starting point into the world of FPGAs and the heart of your next project.
The Alchitry Au features a Xilinx Artix 7 XC7A35T-1C FPGA with over 33,000 logic cells and 256MB of DDR3 RAM. The Au offers 102 3.3V logic level IO pins, 20 of which can be switched to 1.8V; Nine differential analog inputs; Eight general purpose LEDs; a 100MHz on-board clock that can be manipulated internally by the FPGA; a USB-C connector to configure and power the board; and a USB to serial interface for data transfer. To make getting started even easier, all Alchitry boards have full Lucid support, a built in library of useful components to use in your project, and a debugger!
By adding stackable expansion boards similar to shields or HATs called "Elements," the Alchitry Au is able to expand its own hardware capabilities by adding prototyping spaces, buttons, LEDs, and more!
- Artix 7 XC7A35T-1C - 33,280 logic cells
- 256MB DDR3 RAM
- 102 IO pins (3.3V logic level, 20 of then can be switched to 1.8V for LVDS)
- Nine differential analog inputs (One dedicated, Eight mixed with digital IO)
- USB-C to configure and power the board
- Eight general purpose LEDs
- One button (typically used as a reset)
- 100MHz on-board clock (can be multiplied internally by the FPGA)
- Powered with 5V through USB-C port, 0.1" holes, or headers
- USB to serial interface for data transfer (up to 12Mbaud)
- Dimensions of 65mm x 45mm
Alchitry Au FPGA Development Board (Xilinx Artix 7) Product Help and Resources
How Does an FPGA Work?
July 30, 2020
The What, How, Why, and When of Field Programmable Gate Arrays, aka FPGAs
First FPGA Project - Getting Fancy with PWM
July 30, 2020
An initial project using Alchitry's onboard FPGA to manipulate PWM
External IO and Metastability
July 30, 2020
Why external signals can cause metastability and how to use constraint files to manage this
Programming an FPGA
July 30, 2020
Come look at the basics of working with Field Programmable Gate Arrays.
Core Skill: Programming
If a board needs code or communicates somehow, you're going to need to know how to program or interface with it. The programming skill is all about communication and code.
Skill Level: Expert - You should be extremely comfortable programming on various hardware in several languages.
See all skill levels
Core Skill: Electrical Prototyping
If it requires power, you need to know how much, what all the pins do, and how to hook it up. You may need to reference datasheets, schematics, and know the ins and outs of electronics.
Skill Level: Rookie - You may be required to know a bit more about the component, such as orientation, or how to hook it up, in addition to power requirements. You will need to understand polarized components.
See all skill levels
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Customer Reviews
5 out of 5
Based on 1 ratings:
2 of 2 found this helpful:
Great little FPGA prototyping board
The board is very well designed and built (including their Io shield) and works right out of the box. The Xilinx Artix 7 xc7a35t-1c it comes with is a high performing FPGA with more than enough CLBs for most needs. No complaints about the hardware at all, hence the 5 stars. Alchitry has very nice tutorials on its web site, unfortunately all of them use either Verilog or Alchitry's own language Lucid. No VHDL examples, and I am a VHDL guy :-( Why we needed a new language with Lucid is beyond me, but hey, I don't have to use it. Alchitry's IDE, Alchitry Labs, works well under Windows (but I haven't used it extensively there) but has problems under Linux. That's why I keep using Xilinx's Vivado and VHDL, which works great. The worst experience is the Alchitry forum: it is full of spam and nobody had the time to clean it up since the beginning of February. Guess that's one of the downsides of VERY small companies as even the days of the most driven and competent person have only 24 hours. Hope Alchitry keeps humming!!! So far I like what I'm seeing.
I own one of these and seems like a really nice board, I also got the Br and the Io as well.
Working through the tutorials and videos, it works reasonable well. My issue with the board is the support that Alchitry gives for these products.
And when I say give, I mean greatly lacking. Case in point the admin on the Alchitry forum has not logged on since Sep 2019.
If I had known about this lack of support I would have chosen a different FPGA development board.
It would be nice if someone from Sparkfun could look in to this matter, as anything they sell from this manufacturer will not be supported at the level we have come to expect from Sparkfun.
Will an Eagle BRD file be provided eventually? Thanks!
What software can be used to program this with verilog?
Yes it can, also behind the scenes Lucid converts to verilog before building
don't let me down