Minty FPGA + DDR3 RAM Devboard

Hey everyone, my name is Peter Park, a student at The Bronx Science High School of Science. Ever since I discovered the magic of electronics, I've been continuously building my skillset to reach this point. Today, I am proud to present the Minty dev board, a ECP5 FPGA based PCB that features HDMI, 2GB DDR3 RAM, and various other features to play with!

My Motivation:

I’ve always been fascinated by how computers manage memory and communicate with external devices at lightning speed. Working with FPGAs allows me to design hardware from the ground up, experiment with timing-critical systems like DDR3, and understand the inner workings of memory controllers, clocking networks, and peripheral integration. I wanted a challenge that combined hardware design, FPGA programming, and system-level thinking, and this project gave me all of that.

How It Works:

The core of the project is an ECP5 FPGA connected to a DDR3 memory module.

The DDR3 RAM is connected to the ECP5 via skewed traces, to make sure that they are length and impedance matched!

Further more, to help the simplicity of the board, the USB was bit-banged to a FT231XQ, so that users can program via USB from the start!

MicroSD and HDMI connectors are included to allow for more diverse connection and output options, allowing users to store/retrieve data, and output video/images!

A 40 pin header is introduced to allow curious students to interact with the ECP5's general IO pins, allowing for creativity and so much different ideas to be possible!

Who Benefits?:

This board is designed to empower learners to explore hardware design, memory systems, and high-speed interfaces, making advanced FPGA development accessible and hands-on for anyone eager to learn.

PCBWay’s high-quality fabrication and fast turnaround would allow me to focus on testing, firmware development, and peripheral integration, accelerating the project and enabling me to demonstrate a fully functional high-speed FPGA system. Support from PCBWay would make the Minty PCB project feasible and successful. I am super excited about the possibility of a sponsorship, and I look forward to talking to you further!