I get it now.. sarcasm!!

shekhar rudra, no actually, I own this product and enjoy development with it

Jeremy Hong oh ! I just looked up on their website and there is no stock, so I thought you were pointing that out sarcastically, my bad.

@@darcycomearound2936 sad news, it's still out of stock

John Michael Stock things that need to run real-time, known delay processing are great for FPGAs. Anything you would use a custom chip to do, FPGAs can do (sometimes slower, usually more expensively, but with flexibility that would require ordering new chips and making new boards otherwise)

I'm no expert by any stretch but I have seen a few examples from the Microchip YT channel where they are demonstrating some of the peripheral hardware based logic features associated with their newer C-optimized 8 bit microcontrollers. I look at those examples as a bit of a stepping off point for what could be done with a small FPGA. I am more curious about implementing a state machine for the sake of learning instead of truly optimizing hardware though.... it's just an idea. Also it's worth looking up "Robert Baruch" here on YT on the channel by that name. He has uploaded content about early Programmable and Gate Array Logic (PALs/GALs), State Machines, and he reverse engineers ancient 74 series logic chips at the silicon level with a microscope. He even does live streams demonstrating the reverse engineering techniques. His channel is well worth subscribing to and don't forget to hit up the notifications option if you want to catch a stream. His streams are a great learning experience. He answers questions too during the stream and that's really awesome. I have no affiliation with him beyond being a simple hobbyist/viewer/random subscriber to his channel. I'd post links but this message would hit the general auto-spam filter. My subs and playlists are publicly listed so worst case you could find him in my subs. I also saved some of his uploads in my "Misc Hack Hardware" and "MCU FPGA/CPLD" playlists. (My playlists are intended as a form of personal reference as a hobbyist trying to learn, instead of the more conventional self promotion methodology. My channel is not monetized so I couldn't care less if anyone checks out what I've done. I have nothing to gain...but seriously, go check out Robert Baruch if you haven't already ;) -Jake

The right tool for the right job remember. Often all you need is a 555 timer lol

John Michael Stock yes you are right 👍but I think the best way to learn is to create one.🤔btw thanks for the idea👍

John Michael Stock psh, an IC? When I was my age, we used individual transistors for all our logic!

soupisgdfood exactly! It's best to know the basics/building blocks before moving onto more advanced devices.

c31979839 quite false. One does not need to know about transistor gate pin saturation in order to complete most projects with an Arduino ..

Thanks :D

check ebay, for the same price you can get a lot more FPGA for your dollar with more oi and user buttons leds etc.... at the end of the day making it tiny doesnt make the learning curve any easier.

LinuxLivesMatter you should contact Fipsy and have them arrange a chat with SparkFun.

manufactured by PCBWay in China.

Upcycle Electronics have a look at Icestudio

can I ask you one more question, what would be the proper IDE to fully utilise the FPGA on Bx board? Is it a free IDE or do you have to purchase the licence for that separately? Similarly if someone buys a FPGA development board do they get the IDE free of cost, or again license purchase is required. Its understandable that some open source IDE are available but they can't be expected to outperform the features provided by the official IDEs.

shekhar rudra The open source one is actually quite good, have you looked at a benchmark comparison yet?

Look at Open Cores, there are several mature drop in projects. You'd have to learn how tweak them for that FPGA but it's not that difficult. opencores.org/

Search ‘fpga led’ to get a list of led matrix fpga projects if you like blinky lights.

Sure, if you want to over-complicate things. Instead of asking "can I do it this way" you should ask "should I do it this way". If you have no actual reason to avoid using an MCU you probably don't need to use an FPGA.

Do it on an MCU. Arm cortex m3 or m4

Just make one for yourself. The footprint is simple and is a perfect opportunity to learn how to make your own component symbol and footprint within KiCAD.

All the links with pricing can be found in the description

We can do that with cheap MCUs. What can I do with an FPGA that I can't do more easily (because I already know how to use them) with, for instance, an ARM MCU?

Did you even watch the video?

Yeah, sure did. But I didn't hear about anything that can't be done with MCUs. Do you **even** have an answer to my question?

Todd Carney sir, MCUs are for users and fpgas are for creators 👍

Nishant J : And apparently these higher beings are unwilling or actually unable to answer my question. Shawn did a poor job explaining these devices, and aside from gee-whiz replies no one else will do better. As far as I can tell, I can go on "using" PICs and ARMs and--how embarrassing!--Raspberry Pis without ever missing whatever it is FPGAs can do.