BeMicro is a small and cheap hardware platform for all kind of Altera FPGA design prototyping in USB memory stick form factor. Its main purpose is to demonstrate how easy it is to build a system on a programmable chip (SOPC). The hardware plugs into the USB host connector of a PC or a USB hub and it is powered from this source.

From the design software point of view BeMicro acts roughly like an FPGA evaluation board plus an Altera USB blaster. Because of that, BeMicro is seamlessly integrated into the Quartus FPGA design environment and the NIOS IDE.

For system expansion, a prototyping board is available that fits to the edge connector of the BeMicro USB stick.

BeMicro Key Features

• Altera Cyclone III FPGA - EP3C16F256C8N
• 16 MHz clock oscillator
• 3 status LED
• 8 user LEDs
• 80-pin edge connector

BeMicro Optional Features

The housing of BeMico can easily be opened. So, two additional components can be soldered onto the PCB. The layout of the board is prepared for:

• Low Power SRAM 256k * 16 - Renesas R1LV0416DSB-7LI
• Serial Configuration FLASH - Altera EPCS4SI8N

Both components are connected directly to the FPGA. So, the SRAM can serve as code and/or data memory in case the FPGA internal RAM is not sufficient for a particular application. The serial configuration FLASH can be used for to operate BeMicro without a USB connection to the PC.

BeMicro will be delivered without any software or reference design.

>> More information, documentation, drivers and examples can be found here.