Curious about FPGAs but not sure where to start? We’ve got you covered! We’re teaming up with Crowd Supply, OSH Park, and Mouser to give away 30 Hello FPGA kits this summer and cover prototyping costs for up to five new shield designs.

Three Opportunities for a Free Hello FPGA Kit

• Subscribe to receive updates. We will randomly select at least 20 unique subscribers of this Get Launched program page to each receive a free Hello FPGA kit. If you've already subscribed, you're all set. If not, the deadline to subscribe in order to be included in the pool of potential winners is Tuesday, August 31, 2021 at 11:59 PM PDT. Winners will be announced on Friday, September 3, 2021.
• Show off an Arduino shield with your Hello FPGA kit. We will select up to five proposals of demos showing how to use an existing Arduino shield with a Hello FPGA kit. Limit one proposal per person. Submit proposals via our contact form no later than Tuesday, August 31, 2021 at 11:59 PM PDT. Winners will be announced on Friday, September 10, 2021. Winners commit to submitting a video demonstrating their proposal in action no later than Sunday, October 31, 2021. Selection of winners is at our discretion and will be based on the plausability of the proposed demo and the extent to which the proposed demo showcases the features of the Hello FPGA kit.
• Design a new Arduino shield for your Hello FPGA kit. We will select up to five designs of a new Arduino shield for use with a Hello FPGA kit. Limit one proposal per person. Submit proposals with links to documentation via our contact form no later than Sunday, September 12, 2021 at 11:59 PM PDT. Winners will be announced on Friday, September 17, 2021. Winners will receive FREE PCB fabrication from OSH Park and parts from Mouser Electronics for prototypes of their design. Winners commit to submitting a video demonstrating a prototype of their proposed shield design in action no later than Tuesday, November 30, 2021. Selection of winners is at our discretion and will be based on the plausability of the proposed shield, completeness of the design, and the extent to which the new shield showcases the features of the Hello FPGA kit.

Thanks to Mouser Electronics and OSH Park for providing free parts and PCBs!

Hello FPGA

The Hello FPGA kit is a compact, entry-level platform designed for people who are getting started with FPGAs. The kit can handle complex tasks, such as image processing, signal processing and machine learning, and it can also measure the live FPGA core power consumption at the same time as running designs. For low-power applications, the Hello FPGA kit allows users to freeze the design while maintaining the I/O state using flash freeze mode.

The Hello FPGA kit is very flexible and perfect for prototyping, featuring Arduino and mikroBUS connectors, three user push buttons, five user LEDs, power indicator LEDs, an FPGA JTAG header, a PICit header, two 20-pin expansion headers, and a USB 2.0 port.

Powerful Demos

To help you get a grip on this technology, we’ve created three demos using the Hello FPGA kit:

• Artificial Intelligence: Uses Parallel Processing to do real-time hand-written digit recognition
• Digital Signal Processing: Creating FIR/FFT filters
• Power Monitor: Shows how fast the instant-on wake-up time is while displaying the power consumption for both operational and Flash Freeze modes

Ask an FPGA Engineer

As part of the Hello FPGA Summer Giveaway, a Microchip engineer will make a guest appearance on Crowd Supply’s Teardown Sessions livestream. We’ll dive into the world of FPGAs, step through the nuts and bolts of using and programming the Hello FPGA kit, and show off some of the above demos.