Meet Elbert

And now, for something completely different.  Lest you think my interest in electronics begins and ends with blinkenlights, I'd like to introduce you to Elbert.


The Elbert V2 from Numato is an entry-level FPGA board.  The best way to explain it for someone new to the game is that while you tell a CPU what to do, you tell an FPGA what to be.  The FPGA is basically a blank slate of basic logic elements which can be wired together to create almost anything. Video cards, CPUs, digital signal processors, you name it.  Your imagination--and the size of the FPGA you can afford--are the only limits.

I have been interested in FPGAs for quite some time, but until recently, the barrier to entry has been pretty high, and there hasn't been much information available for the hobbyist. Several enterprising makers are committed to bringing FPGAs to the masses with projects like the Papilio and the Mojo which sell for around $75 and provide a lot of hobbyist-friendly projects and tutorials.

Unfortunately, neither of the above boards includes any peripherals beyond some basic buttons and LEDs.  To add peripherals, you must buy an external add-on board that plugs into the FPGA board's headers. Generally, these peripheral boards cost $40 or more, depending on the peripherals. This adds quite a bit to the price of entry, and was a little more than I wanted to pay for something I was still unsure if I would get into.

When I found the Elbert V2 FPGA board from Numato Lab for only $30, it seemed like a safe jumping off point.  The board includes a number of built-in peripherals and connectors, including dip switches, push buttons, seven segment displays, VGA and audio output, and an SD card slot. The XC3S50A FPGA in the Elbert is tiny; probably one of the most basic chips you can buy. However, I would argue that's a not a bad thing because you need to learn the basics before you take off on any really ambitious projects, and having a limited platform forces you to do that.

The low price plus built-in peripherals make Numato's products an excellent value, and I have had a great experience so far with their tech support.

Elbert's Big Brother

Once you've exhausted the capabilities of the Elbert, Numato has the next step up the FPGA food chain waiting in the wings: the Mimas V2, which is only $50.  The Spartan 6  FPGA in the Mimas has over 5X the available logic elements and 10X the built-in memory of the Elbert. It also comes with a 64MB external DRAM chip, which vastly expands its potential.  It should be possible to recreate a lot of famous 8-bit and even 16-bit computers and video game consoles on this board.

Honestly since the Mimas is only $20 more than the Elbert, it might make sense to go ahead and buy it to begin with since it's a much more capable board.

Github Repository

I have checked my code for the various peripherals supported by the Elbert and Mimas into the numatolib Github repository.  Also check out the wiki on the same repository, which has a lot of resources and notes for using the Numato FPGAs.