Alchitry Au+ FPGA Development Board (Xilinx Artix 7)

The Alchitry Au+ FPGA Development Board (Xilinx Artix 7) is a top-tier board for FPGA development. It's equipped with a robust and scalable FPGA chip (Xilinx XC7A100T), allowing for more complex application circuits. With its Configurable Logic Blocks (LABs/CLBs), Logic Elements, and total RAM bits nearly triple that of the standard Au, it is one of the most powerful boards of its kind.

FPGAs, or Field-Programmable Gate Arrays, elevate programming with electronics to the next level. The Au+ is an affordable yet powerful FPGA board that allows projects to expand beyond typical starting points. As a SparkFun product, it also includes a Qwiic connector for easy I²C integration.

The Au+ features a Xilinx Artix 7 XC7A100T FPGA with over 100k logic cells and 256MB of DDR3 RAM. It provides 102 3.3V logic level IO pins, 20 of which can be switched to 1.8V, nine differential analog inputs, eight general purpose LEDs, and a 100MHz on-board clock that can be manipulated by the FPGA. It also includes a USB-C connector for configuration and power, and a USB to serial interface for data transfer. All Alchitry boards support Lucid, a built-in library of useful components, and come with a debugger.

The Au+ also supports stackable expansion boards known as "Elements". Like shields or HATs, these elements allow the Au+ to expand its hardware capabilities by adding prototyping spaces, buttons, LEDs, and more.

The SparkFun Qwiic Connect System is an ecosystem of I²C sensors, actuators, shields, and cables that make prototyping faster and less prone to error. All Qwiic-enabled boards use a common 1mm pitch, 4-pin JST connector. This reduces the amount of required PCB space and polarized connections ensure correct hook up.

Features of the Au+ include: a robust Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA IC with over 3x scalable architecture for complex application circuits, 7925 LABs/CLBs, 101440 Logic Elements/Cells, and 4,976,640 total RAM Bits. Other features include 256MB DDR3 RAM, 102 IO pins, nine differential analog inputs, a USB-C connector for configuration and power, eight general purpose LEDs, a 100MHz on-board clock, and a Qwiic Connector. The board has dimensions of 65mm x 45mm.