Microsemi Corporation announced the availability of its SmartFusion2 Starter Kit, providing designers with a basic prototyping platform for the company's SmartFusion2 system-on-chip (SoC) field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).
The SmartFusion2 Starter Kit supports industry-standard interfaces including Ethernet, USB, SPI, I2C and UART and includes a comprehensive breadboard to support unique design requirements. The kit can be used with Microsemi's Libero SoC v11.0 beta software, which includes a free Libero Gold license and comes preloaded with a uClinux demo. By using the included USB WiFi adapter, the kit has support for RaLink 5370 USB wireless radios, allowing uClinux to setup a wireless access point that serves DHCP WiFi connections.
Users can start a HTTPD server and then access the SmartFusion2 device via a smart phone web browser or other wireless device. Emcraft Systems' Linux-based development environment is also supported. The SmartFusion2 device is available on an Emcraft Systems miniature (34mm × 59mm) mezzanine form factor system-on-module (M2S-SOM), which connects to the SOM-BSB-EXT baseboard. The kit is USB powered, includes FlashPro4 programming and features the following user interfaces and capabilities:
- SmartFusion2 SoC FPGA in the FG896 package (M2S050T-FG896ES)
- 10/100 Ethernet interface and RJ-45 connector
- USB OTG interface and mini-USB connector
- USB based Wi-Fi module
- 64MB LPDDR, 16MB SPI flash
- User push-button connected to GPIO
- Two user-controlled LEDs connected to GPIO
- Breadboard area available for GPIO or FPGA I/O connection
- Power good LED indicating presence of the +3.3 V SOM power
- Reset push button
- Depending on the design, can provide necessary power supply voltages (+5 V, +3.3 V, +1.5 V for power-optimized SOM operation) from external sources through dedicated pads on the breadboard
