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Minze Computer

Minze is an FPGA computer designed by Lone Dynamics Corporation.

This repo contains schematics, PCB layouts, pinouts, a 3D-printable case, example gateware and documentation.

Find more information on the Minze product page.

Programming Minze

Minze has a JTAG interface and ships with a DFU bootloader that allows the included flash MMOD to be programmed over the USB-C port.

DFU

The DFU bootloader is available for 5 seconds after power-on, issuing a DFU command during this period will stop the boot process until the DFU device is detached. If no command is received the boot process will continue and the user gateware will be loaded.

Install dfu-util (Debian/Ubuntu):

$ sudo apt install dfu-util

Update the user gateware on the flash MMOD:

$ sudo dfu-util -a 0 -D image.bit

Detach the DFU device and continue the boot process:

$ sudo dfu-util -a 0 -e

It is possible to update the bootloader itself using DFU but you shouldn't attempt this unless you have a JTAG programmer (or another method to program the MMOD) available, in case you need to restore the bootloader.

JTAG

These examples assume you're using a "USB Blaster" JTAG cable, see the header pinout below. You will need to have openFPGALoader installed.

Program the configuration SRAM:

openFPGALoader -c usb-blaster image.bit

Program the flash MMOD:

openFPGALoader -f -c usb-blaster images/bootloader/tinydfu_minze.bit

Blinky

Building the blinky example requires Yosys, nextpnr-ecp5 and Project Trellis.

Assuming they are installed, you can simply type make to build the gateware, which will be written to output/blinky.bin. You can then use openFPGALoader or dfu-util to write the gateware to the device.

Linux

See the Kakao Linux repo for the latest instructions.

Prebuilt Images

Prebuilt gateware capable of running Linux is available in the images/v1 directory.

These images support a serial console on the PMOD socket. You can use a standard USB-UART PMOD to access the BIOS, boot messages and serial console.

Building Linux-capable Gateware

Please follow the setup instructions in the linux-on-litex-vexriscv repo and then:

1. Build the Linux-capable gateware:

$ cd linux-on-litex-vexriscv
$ ./make.py --board=minze --dcache-size=64 --icache-size=64 --uart-baudrate=115200 --build
$ ls build/minze

2. Write the gateware to the MMOD using USB DFU:

$ sudo dfu-util -a 0 -D build/minze/gateware/minze.bit

3. Copy the device tree binary build/minze/minze.dtb to a FAT-formatted MicroSD card.

JTAG Header

The 3.3V JTAG header can be used to program the FPGA SRAM as well as the MMOD flash memory. It can also be used to provide power (5V) to the board.

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Board Revisions

License

The contents of this repo are released under the Lone Dynamics Open License with the following exceptions:

• The KiCad design files contain parts of the kicad-pmod library which is released under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

• The KiCad design files may contain symbols and footprints released under other licenses; please contact us if we've failed to give proper attribution.

Note: You can use these designs for commercial purposes but we ask that instead of producing exact clones, that you either replace our trademarks and logos with your own or add your own next to ours.