Arrow Electronics introduces first reference kit for Intel Cyclone 10 LP

Kit developed with Trenz Electronic accelerates development, reduces time to market.

11 July 2019 – Arrow Electronics has introduced a full-featured reference kit based on the low-cost and low-power Intel® Cyclone®10 LP FPGA family. The Cyclone 10 LP reference kit reduces time to market and development costs by enabling users to start work immediately with a end product qualified platform.

The kit, which is the first available for this device family, includes a 55kLE Cyclone 10 LP FPGA and a large selection of common interfaces and peripherals. It can address a wide range of applications in the industrial, automotive, vision, test and measurement, and consumer sectors. Arrow developed the kit together with Trenz Electronic GmbH.

The FPGA and all peripherals are powered by the cost-optimized and high-efficiency Enpirion DCDC modules that are well suited for FPGA applications and many other electronic designs.

The board comes with two 10/100 Ethernet PHYs to support normal network connectivity as well as industrial Ethernet protocols. Arrow worked with Softing Industrial Automation GmbH to provide an industrial Ethernet implementation for most common real-time protocols, such as PROFINET (RT and IRT), EtherNet/IP and EtherCAT. Also, Modbus TCP is supported. All protocols are integrated using Softing’s modular subsystem architecture with its uniform software interface that allows for easy integration and exchange of the supported protocols.

Data storage, transfer and modifications can be achieved with a variety of memories on the board, including 64 MBit HyperRAM, 256 MBitSDRAM and 64 MBit Flash.

To expand the connectivity and adapt other boards with sensors and additional interfaces, there are six PMOD connectors and an Arduino header. A display output is available with a VGA connector and an 8-channel ADC / DAC / GPIO expander gives maximum flexibility on IO signals.

The Cyclone 10 LP reference kit is a useful tool also for universities and other educational establishments. Simple applications can be generated using its LEDs, switches and a 7-segment display, and new FPGA engineers can be trained on VHDL basic programming. Arrow will be offering several training labs on the boards to demonstrate interaction with all the interfaces and peripherals.

For programming and debugging of the FPGA, the Arrow USB Programmer2 is implemented together with the Intel Quartus Prime FPGA design software. An integrated UART channel in the USB connection allows easy data communication between the application and a PC.

A step-by-step starter guide and a complete FPGA software package is available to address all components directly with the Cyclone 10 LP. A schematic and bill of materials can be used to investigate the details of the board or as a reference for a new FPGA design.

The Arrow Cyclone 10 LP Reference Kit supports all development phases, from the first prototype through to direct use in an end product. A full customization of the board is also possible on request, to achieve an efficient and optimized design for a specific application. The Arrow Cyclone 10 LP reference kit is available with order number C10LP-REFKIT.