SPECIFICATIONS

ULX3S is a fully open source, compact, robust, and affordable FPGA dev board equipped with a balanced selection of additional components and expansions. Although it was designed primarily as a teaching tool for mastering the principles of digital circuit design, ULX3S incorporates a wide array of features and interfaces that allow it to serve as a broadly useful module for installation in complex devices.

Built around a powerful Lattice Semiconductor ECP5-series FPGA chip and supported by the latest open-source toolchains, ULX3S is one of the most powerful and desirable platforms available for FPGA enthusiasts. It comes equipped with onboard Wi-Fi, display, buttons, LEDs, and storage. Flash it with an over-the-air (OTA) update using the Wi-Fi connection or take advantage of the onboard OLED display and buttons to browse the contents of an SD card and select a bitstream.

Energy Efficient, Versatile, and Easy to Program

Due to its battery-backed RTC, ULX3S can power down completely and wake up only in response to certain events. This feature makes it perfect for use in low-power applications such as battery-powered remote sensor nodes.

And if you’re not the low-power type, on-board peripherals like SDRAM, USB, digital video out, FM/ASK antenna, ADC, and DAC make it an audio/video powerhouse for signal processing and synthesis, motor control, and SDR use cases. It can emulate arcade machines and retro computers like the Minimig (Amiga) or modern systems like the F32C (MIPS/RISCV). It has 56 GPIO pins, all routed as differential pairs, and a PMOD compatible pinout, which opens it up to a wide range of expansion options.

Finally, if you are just starting out with FPGAs, you can use the Arduino IDE to program ULX3S in seconds.

On-Board ESP32

Software engineers, embedded developers, and programmers learning Verilog will enjoy having a built-in ESP32 that can work cooperatively with or independently of the FPGA. Program the ESP32 natively using C/C++ with the Arduino IDE, the Visual Micro extension for Visual Studio, or the Espressif IDF commandline toolchain. You can also configure the ESP32 for use with MicroPython, Espruino, the JavaScript SDK, NodeMCU, LUA, mruby, .Net C# nanoFramework, and more!

Stable Design

ULX3S has been actively developed since 2016 and is the result of a collaboration between Radiona.org / Zagreb Makerspace and FER – the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing – at the University of Zagreb in Croatia.

Our PCB design was authored by Electronic Mechanic Aerodynamic Research & Development (EMARD).

Features & Specifications