This is really, really cool. The folks at Opal Kelly are always boasting about how easy it is to use their FPGA-based USB modules to create incredibly cunning designs. Well, they just announced a very exciting "Experts' Design Challenge" – to create an FPGA-based logic analyzer in a day.

Let's briefly remind ourselves as to what this is all about and set the scene. As you may recall, the folks at Opal Kelly specialize in creating small modules that include an FPGA and USB 2.0 connectivity. When you are designing a system, using one of these modules to connect your product to a host PC reduces your design costs, reduces your risks, and speeds time-to-market (Click Here to see a more fulsome blog – including a video – on this topic by yours truly.)

More recently, those little scamps at Opal Kelly announced something they call the Opal Kelly Experts Program.  This program introduces Opal Kelly customers to qualified Opal Kelly expert consultants to augment in-house expertise and bandwidth for completing FPGA and FrontPanel-based development (Click Here to see the original blog – including another video – on this topic.)

But just how easy is it to use Opal Kelly's modules ... and just how good are the "experts" in the Opal Kelly Experts Program? (You can call me "old-fashioned" if you will, but inquiring minds – like mine – want to know this sort of thing.) Well, the folks at Opal Kelly just announced a "Logic Analyzer in a Day" Experts' Challenge, using an Opal Kelly module along with Opal Kelly's integrated FrontPanel Software Developement Kit (SDK).

They say that this challenge is designed to showcase both the capabilities of the Opal Kelly experts and how quickly a significant project can be implemented using Opal Kelly modules and software. I've been chatting to the folks at Opal Kelly about all of this, and I will be presenting in-depth articles on the experts' projects over the next few weeks, including photographs of the hardware, screenshots of the software, and interviews with the experts themselves (bless their little cotton socks). Of particular interest is the fact that everything is going to be open source, so the code created by the experts will be available for anyone to download and play with (I like this part a lot)

Each expert will be provided with an Opal Kelly module – either an XEM3005 or an XEM3010 – whichever that particular expert prefers (the image below shows an XEM3010).

Also, each expert will be provided with an appropriate breakout board, which allows them to gain easy access to the FPGA module's I/O signals (the image below shows an XEM3010 breakout board with an XEM3010 module plugged into it).

One cool thing I discovered when chatting to the folks at Opal Kelly is that you don’t need to use their breakout boards – they will happily provide you with all of the design files (schematics, Gerber files, etc) so that you can make your own. And, of course, the real advantage to this is that you can use these files to speed the design of your own main product board. But we digress... "What are the rules associated with this design challenge?" you cry. Well, I shall explain...

The Challenge “rules” are flexible to allow the experts to use familiar tools and creative approaches:

• Spend no more than one working day (approximately 8-to-10 hours) on the project.
• Create the design using an Opal Kelly XEM3005 or XEM3010 module and corresponding breakout board.
• Any HDL used must be open-sourced after the challenge.
• Any software created may be any language/platform as long as the source code, or similar, is made available to other users/designers for free.
• Typical logic analyzer features are provided as a guideline, but no firm specification is provided.

Three Opal Kelly Experts – Rainer Malzbender,  Kevin Smith and Klaus Zietlow – all experienced digital design engineers with expertise in HDL, FPGA, and software design –  have accepted the challenge.  Rainer has been an engineering consultant for more than 20 years and is expert in working with displays and image processing.  He has developed for Opal Kelly XEM3050, XEM3010, and XEM3001 modules.   Kevin Smith has more than 12 years experience as a digital design engineer and system architect.  He uses Opal Kelly modules as mini-platforms for data capture, emulation, and testing.  Klaus Zietlow is a one-stop shop for electronics design (analog, digital, and mixed signal) and has worked on everything from high-speed, high-precision analog to FPGA embedded multiprocessor designs to ultra low-power radios.  He recently used the Opal Kelly XEM3005 to develop both prototype and production boards for a DNA Microarray scanner.

I must say that I find this to be very exciting – real designers doing something interesting and fun (who would have thought?). My understanding is that this will be only the first in a series of Expert Design Challenges (if you have any ideas for future challenges, let me know and I'll share them with the folks at Opal Kelly).

As I say, I will be reporting on the results of this challenge over the coming weeks here on TechBites.com. In the meantime, for more information about Opal Kelly, please visit www.opalkelly.com; and for more information on the Opal Kelly Experts Program, please visit:  www.opalkelly.com/experts.