Lattice iCE40 UltraLite DIPSY - what happened?

R

rickman

Guest
I was digging around for info on the iCE40 UL and found info on the
DIPSY from 2015 when it was breaking news. Not sure how I missed it,
but this is a very small unit with a very tiny FPGA (likely the smallest
FPGA package ever - 2 mm^2) and an LDO for the core power and of course
some connectors.

I found a github page with various design details and an Indiegogo page.
There I found a video from Lattice that says this unit along with a
programming board (over 100 times larger) is sold for $5. It looks like
they received 140% of their goal. What I don't find is any way to buy
this. The video says to go to the lattice web site for more info, but I
don't find even a mention there.

Maybe that's why I missed this unit. It may have sold a few copies to
the original contributors and then been dropped.

Anyone know anything about this? The guy behind it is Antti Lukats who
has been seen here from time to time.

--

Rick C
 
rickman:
I was digging around for info on the iCE40 UL and found info on the
DIPSY from 2015 when it was breaking news. Not sure how I missed it,

but this is a very small unit with a very tiny FPGA (likely the
smallest
FPGA package ever - 2 mm^2) and an LDO for the core power and of
course
some connectors.

I found a github page with various design details and an Indiegogo
page.
There I found a video from Lattice that says this unit along with a

programming board (over 100 times larger) is sold for $5. It looks
like
they received 140% of their goal. What I don't find is any way to buy

this. The video says to go to the lattice web site for more info, but
I
don't find even a mention there.

Maybe that's why I missed this unit. It may have sold a few copies to

the original contributors and then been dropped.

Anyone know anything about this? The guy behind it is Antti Lukats
who
has been seen here from time to time.

--

Rick C
Click to expand...

Antti still lives and breathes and hangs out a little on Farnell's
Element14 site.

I think he is currently working for Trenz Electronics who are at
www.trenz-electronic.de

MK
 
On 5/7/2017 8:19 AM, Michael Kellett wrote:
rickman:
I was digging around for info on the iCE40 UL and found info on the
DIPSY from 2015 when it was breaking news. Not sure how I missed it,

but this is a very small unit with a very tiny FPGA (likely the
smallest
FPGA package ever - 2 mm^2) and an LDO for the core power and of
course
some connectors.

I found a github page with various design details and an Indiegogo
page.
There I found a video from Lattice that says this unit along with a

programming board (over 100 times larger) is sold for $5. It looks
like
they received 140% of their goal. What I don't find is any way to buy

this. The video says to go to the lattice web site for more info, but
I
don't find even a mention there.

Maybe that's why I missed this unit. It may have sold a few copies to

the original contributors and then been dropped.

Anyone know anything about this? The guy behind it is Antti Lukats
who
has been seen here from time to time.

--

Rick C

Antti still lives and breathes and hangs out a little on Farnell's
Element14 site.

I think he is currently working for Trenz Electronics who are at
www.trenz-electronic.de
Click to expand...

Yes, I've seen signs of Antti in various places, but he never seems to
be terribly thorough about documenting his work. I just looked at the
Gerbers for this design and there is a list of the files in a file with
an EXTREP suffix as if that would be remotely obvious... Then the drill
file isn't listed. After opening nearly all the possible files it
turned out to be the .txt file. Go figure.

Anyway, now that I can see the Gerbers, the PCB design rules are 2/2 mil
trace/space (0.05 mm) and 6 mil drills (0.15 mm). I've never made a
board like this before. It will require professional assembly as well I
expect.

Anyone hand built a prototype with 0.35 mm center uBGAs before?

While the Indiegogo page has a video from Lattice Semi saying you can
buy assembled boards from them for $5, I see no trace. It appears the
$5 price gets you a PCB directly from Antti according to a home page
http://dipsy.cool

Hard to tell really. Lots of hype and little real info. I guess it's
all there if you can find it and figure it out. I just don't know where
I can get PCBs with 2/2 design rules made.

--

Rick C
 
On 5/7/2017 7:18 PM, rickman wrote:
On 5/7/2017 8:19 AM, Michael Kellett wrote:
rickman:
I was digging around for info on the iCE40 UL and found info on the
DIPSY from 2015 when it was breaking news. Not sure how I missed it,

but this is a very small unit with a very tiny FPGA (likely the
smallest
FPGA package ever - 2 mm^2) and an LDO for the core power and of
course
some connectors.

I found a github page with various design details and an Indiegogo
page.
There I found a video from Lattice that says this unit along with a

programming board (over 100 times larger) is sold for $5. It looks
like
they received 140% of their goal. What I don't find is any way to buy

this. The video says to go to the lattice web site for more info, but
I
don't find even a mention there.

Maybe that's why I missed this unit. It may have sold a few copies to

the original contributors and then been dropped.

Anyone know anything about this? The guy behind it is Antti Lukats
who
has been seen here from time to time.

--

Rick C

Antti still lives and breathes and hangs out a little on Farnell's
Element14 site.

I think he is currently working for Trenz Electronics who are at
www.trenz-electronic.de

Yes, I've seen signs of Antti in various places, but he never seems to
be terribly thorough about documenting his work. I just looked at the
Gerbers for this design and there is a list of the files in a file with
an EXTREP suffix as if that would be remotely obvious... Then the drill
file isn't listed. After opening nearly all the possible files it
turned out to be the .txt file. Go figure.

Anyway, now that I can see the Gerbers, the PCB design rules are 2/2 mil
trace/space (0.05 mm) and 6 mil drills (0.15 mm). I've never made a
board like this before. It will require professional assembly as well I
expect.

Anyone hand built a prototype with 0.35 mm center uBGAs before?

While the Indiegogo page has a video from Lattice Semi saying you can
buy assembled boards from them for $5, I see no trace. It appears the
$5 price gets you a PCB directly from Antti according to a home page
http://dipsy.cool

Hard to tell really. Lots of hype and little real info. I guess it's
all there if you can find it and figure it out. I just don't know where
I can get PCBs with 2/2 design rules made.
Click to expand...

I just reread my post. I think my comments about Antti's Gerber files
sound worse than I intended them. I greatly appreciate the projects
Antti does. This is not the first project Antti has made available. He
tends toward very minimalistic projects which are very inexpensive.
Sometimes that is exactly the right way to go.

--

Rick C
 
rickman:
On 5/7/2017 8:19 AM, Michael Kellett wrote:
rickman:
I was digging around for info on the iCE40 UL and found info on the
DIPSY from 2015 when it was breaking news. Not sure how I missed
it,

but this is a very small unit with a very tiny FPGA (likely the
smallest
FPGA package ever - 2 mm^2) and an LDO for the core power and of
course
some connectors.

I found a github page with various design details and an Indiegogo
page.
There I found a video from Lattice that says this unit along with
a

programming board (over 100 times larger) is sold for $5. It looks
like
they received 140% of their goal. What I don't find is any way to
buy

this. The video says to go to the lattice web site for more info,
but
I
don't find even a mention there.

Maybe that's why I missed this unit. It may have sold a few copies
to

the original contributors and then been dropped.

Anyone know anything about this? The guy behind it is Antti Lukats
who
has been seen here from time to time.

--

Rick C

Antti still lives and breathes and hangs out a little on Farnell's
Element14 site.

I think he is currently working for Trenz Electronics who are at
www.trenz-electronic.de

Yes, I've seen signs of Antti in various places, but he never seems to

be terribly thorough about documenting his work. I just looked at the

Gerbers for this design and there is a list of the files in a file
with
an EXTREP suffix as if that would be remotely obvious... Then the
drill
file isn't listed. After opening nearly all the possible files it
turned out to be the .txt file. Go figure.

Anyway, now that I can see the Gerbers, the PCB design rules are 2/2
mil
trace/space (0.05 mm) and 6 mil drills (0.15 mm). I've never made a
board like this before. It will require professional assembly as well
I
expect.

Anyone hand built a prototype with 0.35 mm center uBGAs before?

While the Indiegogo page has a video from Lattice Semi saying you can

buy assembled boards from them for $5, I see no trace. It appears the

$5 price gets you a PCB directly from Antti according to a home page
http://dipsy.cool

Hard to tell really. Lots of hype and little real info. I guess it's

all there if you can find it and figure it out. I just don't know
where
I can get PCBs with 2/2 design rules made.

--

Rick C
Click to expand...

I've had very mixed results with hand build and, as it turned out not
professional enough build of Lattice's tiny FPGAs.
I've had really good results with the iCE5LP4k in 48pin QFP - it is a
little larger but fairly easy to hand work on senisble design rule
boards. I'm looking forward to the UP5K in the same package when Lattice
can actually supply any.

MK
 
On 5/9/2017 9:02 AM, Michael Kellett wrote:
rickman:
On 5/7/2017 8:19 AM, Michael Kellett wrote:
rickman:
I was digging around for info on the iCE40 UL and found info on the
DIPSY from 2015 when it was breaking news. Not sure how I missed
it,

but this is a very small unit with a very tiny FPGA (likely the
smallest
FPGA package ever - 2 mm^2) and an LDO for the core power and of
course
some connectors.

I found a github page with various design details and an Indiegogo
page.
There I found a video from Lattice that says this unit along with
a

programming board (over 100 times larger) is sold for $5. It looks
like
they received 140% of their goal. What I don't find is any way to
buy

this. The video says to go to the lattice web site for more info,
but
I
don't find even a mention there.

Maybe that's why I missed this unit. It may have sold a few copies
to

the original contributors and then been dropped.

Anyone know anything about this? The guy behind it is Antti Lukats
who
has been seen here from time to time.

--

Rick C

Antti still lives and breathes and hangs out a little on Farnell's
Element14 site.

I think he is currently working for Trenz Electronics who are at
www.trenz-electronic.de

Yes, I've seen signs of Antti in various places, but he never seems to

be terribly thorough about documenting his work. I just looked at the

Gerbers for this design and there is a list of the files in a file
with
an EXTREP suffix as if that would be remotely obvious... Then the
drill
file isn't listed. After opening nearly all the possible files it
turned out to be the .txt file. Go figure.

Anyway, now that I can see the Gerbers, the PCB design rules are 2/2
mil
trace/space (0.05 mm) and 6 mil drills (0.15 mm). I've never made a
board like this before. It will require professional assembly as well
I
expect.

Anyone hand built a prototype with 0.35 mm center uBGAs before?

While the Indiegogo page has a video from Lattice Semi saying you can

buy assembled boards from them for $5, I see no trace. It appears the

$5 price gets you a PCB directly from Antti according to a home page
http://dipsy.cool

Hard to tell really. Lots of hype and little real info. I guess it's

all there if you can find it and figure it out. I just don't know
where
I can get PCBs with 2/2 design rules made.

--

Rick C

I've had very mixed results with hand build and, as it turned out not
professional enough build of Lattice's tiny FPGAs.
I've had really good results with the iCE5LP4k in 48pin QFP - it is a
little larger but fairly easy to hand work on senisble design rule
boards. I'm looking forward to the UP5K in the same package when Lattice
can actually supply any.
Click to expand...

I would *love* to use QFP/QFN packages, but I need an ultra lite part.
The bulk of the power consumption will be the quiescent power and the UL
parts are half the UP parts.

--

Rick C
 
rickman wrote:

Then the drill
file isn't listed. After opening nearly all the possible files it
turned out to be the .txt file. Go figure.
Click to expand...
Protel and derivatives (Tango, Altium) have used .txt for the drill
(Excellon) file for some time.
Anyway, now that I can see the Gerbers, the PCB design rules are 2/2 mil
trace/space (0.05 mm) and 6 mil drills (0.15 mm). I've never made a
board like this before. It will require professional assembly as well I
expect.

Anyone hand built a prototype with 0.35 mm center uBGAs before?

Yikes!
Click to expand...

Jon
 
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