Greetings all!
Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are one of three fundamental types of digital architectures used for communications R&D.
The others are general purpose processors and graphical processing units (GPUs).
This fall, in San Diego, California, there will be an FPGA course sponsored by Open Research Institute. There are 10 spots with amateur communications as the focus of the work.
FPGAs are a primary technology in satellite communications. They’re used in R&D and in deployment. It is difficult to get started with FPGA design for several reasons. The tools have traditionally been proprietary. The companies that make the tools price them for large corporations to buy. Coursework for FPGA design is rare.
This is where iCEBreaker makes a difference.
An iCEBreaker Workshop 10 pack has been made available. They are described at this link https://www.crowdsupply.com/1bitsquared/icebreaker-fpga
I will use this hardware to put on a course for anyone interested in amateur radio satellite and terrestrial development. All course materials will be published.
The first course will be in San Diego. If you’re in the area, please get in touch! MakerPlace and CoLab are the likely sites.
Later workshops could be at places like Symposium, Xenia, or Hamcation. The full course cannot be accomplished in a day, but a workshop could get the basics across and provide a substantial boost to motivated amateur satellite engineering volunteers. Let me know what you think.
more soon!
-Michelle W5NYV