FireAnt is the first third-party development board for the Efinix Trion product family. It provides an easy-to-use development platform for FPGA makers and hobbyists. Powered by the Efinix Trion T8, FireAnt is ready to use with just a PC and no extra components required. The breadboard- friendly design allows for fast application deployment with sensors, peripherals, or other interfaces. It’s the perfect solution for manufacturers to prototype their projects or digital design students to learn FPGA development using the new Efinix platform quickly. The power/performance/size advantages of the Trion T8 FPGA also make it ideal for edge IoT applications.

Features and Specifications

• Efinix Trion T8 FPGA
  • 7384 LE counts
  • 8 embedded multipliers
  • 1 low-power oscillator
  • 1 PLL
  • 122.88 kbit internal RAM
  • Package size: BGA-81 5x5 mm
• Board dimensions: 51.4 x 18.3 mm
• Supply voltage: VBUS 5 V | VCC 3.3 V
• VCCIO: 3.3 V
• Onboard 33.333 MHz crystal oscillator for PLL
• GPIOs: 35
• LED: 6 (incl. 4 user-configurable LEDs)
• Flash: 8 Mbit serial NOR Flash
• Programming interface:
  • USB 2.0 Hi-Speed(480 Mb/s)
  • JTAG (with exposed pin in bottom layer via external JTAG programmer)
• Development platform: Efinity Software

Comes Pre-loaded with a Firmware Demo

An out-of-box demo firmware is pre-loaded onto FireAnt. The firmware is actually a 4-bit counter with configurable counting speed. Press BTN1 to accelerate, while BTN2 is to decelerate. Besides validating the board peripheries (PLL, buttons and LEDs) are working, the out-of-box demo can give insight into what an HDL looks like when you check out the quick start guide. Please see the GIF animation demo below:

User-friendly Efinity Software

The Efinity Software is a user-friendly IDE for development with the Trion FPGA. It provides a complete tool flow throughout the whole RTL development process, from synthesis, place-and-route (PNR), to timing analysis and bitstream generation. The tool also comes with a command-line interface (CLI) and Tcl command console. It supports Verilog and VHDL and is available on Windows and Linux (Ubuntu/Red Hat Enterprise/CentOS) platforms.

For a tutorial on using Efinity Software and other resource, source code, etc., please visit our Github pages for more detail. For a PDF of the full board schematic see here: https://github.com/jungle-elec/FireAnt/raw/master/FireAnt_Schematic.pdf.

Board Description

1. Efinity Trion T8F81C2 FPGA
2. FTDI FT232HQ UART/FIFO IC
3. Winbond W25Q80DV Serial NOR Flash
4. 3.3 V LDO regulator
5. Micro USB female connector
6. Button: CRESET
7. BTN1
8. BTN2
9. LED_PWR
10. LED_CDN
11. LED1, LED2, LED3, LED4

Headers included in package

Each FireAnt consists of the main board and two 20-pin, 2.54mm gold-plated headers packed in an anti-static bag. See package diagram below:

Comparison

Pinout Diagram

Embedded Vision and Sobel Filter Demo

We built a real-time Sobel filter and posterizing filter demonstration. (Credit to Efinix Inc Hong Kong Team). The system is capturing video from camera module OV5640 with 720p resolution. The FireAnt processes all captured data and exports it to the monitor via VGA 666 module. It is powered by micro USB connection associated with FireAnt and consumes around 250mA. The demo design consists of 5 modes that illustrate the effect of each filter. They include the following filters:

1. Streaming
2. Sobel
3. Sobel + Streaming
4. Posterize + Streaming
5. Rotating Demo

The RTL Design utilizes 3086 logic elements counts (41.8%), dedicating 18 memory blocks (75%) and 0 multipliers (0%). A direct instruction with connection diagram and source code will be disclosed soon.

Learn more about the Sobel demo in this update.

Resources and Support

Datasheets, user guides, and other resources can be found on Efinix Support Center. Each FireAnt owner will be provided a user account to Sign in to Efinix Support for downloading Efinity Software, design examples, and access to the forum. Please contact the FireAnt team to receive the Serial Number (SN) for your Efinix membership. The login has Forget Password support if the user enters the wrong password. If you encounter any login issues, please contact us directly.