Pi3 = A53 ; Zynq UltraScale+ FPGA with A53

[Konekko]

We NEED this.

So what is the this I'm talking about, Zynq Pi B+. Zynq is an FPGA with 103k to 1,143k cells and a quad core Cortex-A53 hard core app processor just like the Pi 3B+ has. What the normal Raspberry Pi did for IoT and Linux the Zynq Pi could do for FPGA programing. I understand that it would not be $30-$40 but this is what would really move the Pi forward imho.

[binaryhermit]

My understanding is that part of the point of the RPi is that it's cheap. Adding a FPGA would probably mean a non-trivial price increase.

[jdb]

We NEED this.

No, we don't.

FPGA is costly in both silicon area and power, two things that the SoC used on Pi minimises. For reference a feature-equivalent BCM2835 implementation in FPGA takes up about 3U of rack space and uses about 500 watts.

[stderr]

We NEED this. So what is the this I'm talking about, Zynq Pi B+. Zynq is an FPGA

There are already shields that attach to the pi that provide FPGA support. Now if you can do a quad care pi3 + something FPGA for $35, I think there's a market for that.

It's also possible that a single board with unpopulated areas that are designed to accept various things would make sense. This is how the first pi A and B worked, with the ethernet just not being there on the A. I'd rather start with those unpopulated bits being something that could accept, say, 24v or less and support power over ethernet and/or allow use of most any wall wart you want. These are direct cost drivers that apply to everyone so they should come first, in my opinion.

[Heater]

This is silly.

If you want a cheap board to explore FPGA development on get a Parallella or some such.

Configuring FPGA with VHDL or Verilog is orders of magnitude more complex that the "explore programming" idea the Pi is targeted at.

FPGA is expensive.

Tools to develop for FPGA are closed source. Depending on Altera or Xlinx is a bad idea.

Having said that, I think it's a great idea to make logic design/chip development accessible to everyone.

[GTR2Fan]

We NEED this.

No we don't. I think you must be missing the whole point of why the Pi exists in the first place.

[Konekko]

wow...
if I had not found this http://www.xilinx.com/products/boards-a ... kymke.html I would have thought I was the only one doing machine vision, robotics, signal analyses and generation, software defined radio, with something like that and a fast ADC / front end you get any number of useful tools. If it had 100 more IO it would be a lesser version of what I was thinking, and I think it holds up on Pi pricing, its real cheap for what you get.

[W. H. Heydt]

wow...
if I had not found this http://www.xilinx.com/products/boards-a ... kymke.html I would have thought I was the only one doing machine vision, robotics, signal analyses and generation, software defined radio, with something like that and a fast ADC / front end you get any number of useful tools. If it had 100 more IO it would be a lesser version of what I was thinking, and I think it holds up on Pi pricing, its real cheap for what you get.

Note that it has 128MB of RAM (1/8 of a Pi2B or Pi3B), only 26 GPIO pins (compared to 40 on all models from B+ on) and costs 99 Euros ($110), which is 3 times the cost of a Pi. The one thing you get that a Pi doesn't have is 16GB of on-board flash. Doesn't seem to be worth the price.