What is it?

The TinyFPGA Computer Project Board is a through-hole FPGA kit you assemble yourself. It has all of the main components you need to implement a small 8-bit retro computer.

Motherboard Features:

• USB-A connector for connecting USB devices
• 3.5mm stereo audio jack
• VGA connector with 6-bit color
• PS/2 keyboard connector
• Hand-solderable micro SD card slot
• 128 Kilobyte SPI SRAM
• prototyping area for custom additions
• Standard Pico-ITX form-factor

At the heart of the motherboard is the TinyFPGA B2. A discounted TinyFPGA B2 is included in the kit by default. If you already have a B2 you can remove it from the kit using the options on the right. The TinyFPGA B2 module itself has the following features:

• ICE40LP8K FPGA Chip
• 7,680 4-input look-up-tables
• 128 KBit block RAM
• Phase Locked Loop
• 23 user IO pins
• Small form-factor that is breadboard friendly; plenty of space on either side for connecting jumpers or components. There is no smaller FPGA board available with this many logic resources!
• Open-source USB interface for programming new FPGA bitstreams and user data to flash. Only a micro USB cable is needed, no external programmer required and no proprietary USB chip is used!
• 4MBit of SPI Flash. Bootloader bitstream takes up about 1MBit, user design bitstream will take another 1MBit, the rest is free to use for other purposes.
• 3.3v and 1.2v Regulators. 3.3v LDO regulator can supply up to 300ma of current. This leaves some headroom for user peripherals. 1.2v LDO regulator can supply up to 150ma of current. More headroom for user peripherals.
• Ultra-Low-Power 16MHz MEMs Oscillator. 1.3ma power when active. 50ppm stability.

There are a lot of open-source retro-computer projects available online, but they have not yet been ported to this project board. There are a lot of opportunities for porting existing retro-computers and all new computers using this board.

Why did you make it?

Implementing a working computer from the ground-up or an existing project is one of the most rewarding and entertaining challenges for FPGAs. The end result of your labor is a computer you can interact with via monitor and keyboard. If you've implemented a classic 8-bit computer then you'll be able to run that old software on a piece of hardware you built. It's a lot of fun and I wanted to bring all the hardware components together in a kit to help make it happen.

What makes it special?

An FPGA computer motherboard you can assemble yourself is a rare animal. In addition to being an assemble-it-yourself kit, the motherboard is low-cost compared to other FPGA computer boards, fits in a standard Pico-ITX compatible case, and the TinyFPGA B2 that powers it can be programmed using the open source IceStorm project.