New Gowin board

[dmendesf]

Bigger FPGA with hard cortex-m3 core:

https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/1005003152104886.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.38c2b90aOCx3I2

[brucehoult]

Looks nice for the price. It's not listed on that page, but it seems the Cortex-M3 can run at 80 MHz (but maybe defaults to 30 MHz at reset).

Most people will want to remove the "pt." from the start of the URL :-)

[dmendesf]

Yes, sorry for the "pt" (it's added by default because I'm in Brazil).

[tszaboo]

Does this also require that PITA Gowin FPGA designer?
I have spent 2 hours trying to get the license work, and the online on demand license is just broken, the local one doesn't work either, and you have to request a MAC node locked one in email. No software to configure where the license file is, you have to add it to windows path. Downloaded 3 version number of the software because the 3rd party plugin doing implementation was missing from 2. And the download page is only in Chinese.
Honestly, I just gave up after a while, it is not worth my time trying to get some broken software working.

[mon2]

Don't give up. Gowin is an amazing company for support. Their secret weapon is David (FAE) in the USA. Have emailed him countless times with prompt replies to all questions to date. We are designing with the csp49 packaged GW1NS-LV4C device. This device requires via-in-pad pcb layout. Also testing their new USB bridge for programming the FPGA. Have you received the license? Post more details but will see if we can help to get you started. Also Grant Jennings (formerly from Lattice) is now at Gowin. David has some great videos on how to get started with the device with the hard M3 CPU.

1) Create an account on the gowinsemi.com website. It is required to download almost anything and certainly for the IP & tool software.

English website:

https://gowinsemi.com/en/

Top right buttons will allow for viewing of the website in ENglish / Japanese / Chinese languages.

2) After login & captcha entry -> you can update your profile. Just skip this if you are ok with your password & username.

Menu -> Support -> EDA Home.

Apply License - required to use the tool and recommended for office / home use. Never tested the cloud account method but interesting.

Suggestion - consider a USB Ethernet dongle and request a license for it. Then take the dongle with you from office / home.

3) Download EDA toolchain -> Gowin V1.9.8 win. It is the latest. Not sure what the 'education' version is about so we selected the 2nd entry.

4) If you will be using either the SOFT or HARD micro -> then the compiler and tools will be required which is a separate download. We have confirmed that both KEIL and their Gowin IDE work well. Gowin is a GCC compiler. Cost is free so suggest this approach.

GOWIN MCU Designer_V1.1  must be downloaded. A SEPARATE license is required for this tool - please note this. Called the 'GMD' license. You can request this - it is free.

Download the related PDF for each of these tools to get started.

5) When you launch the EDA tool, a pop-up will be flashed to request for the missing license file -> BROWSE to where this was downloaded -> the tool will auto-link & launch. The flow is very similar to the Lattice toolchain.

Gowinsynthesis is the default tool for the tool.

6) Recommend to watch the assorted videos from Gowin. The following is a must watch from David (FAE):



and also from Jim:



Post any issues you may have here and will try to assist you. Also have alerted the crew in the USA about this thread. They have us convinced to invest the time and effort for their devices. We hope to prototype a few concepts very soon using their components on our SMT line.

On sourcing - really like Mouser but their pricing for the parts and kits are just not supporting of this line. Consider to work with Rob @ Edge Electronics. It will be worth the effort to do so. For Canadians, to avoid the Trump tax(es) -> buy the parts & kits directly from HK / Shenzhen to your location. Otherwise if the goods hit USA soil - the landed costs will be higher for no reason to Canadians or customers that are not in the USA.

Hope this helps to get you started.

[up8051]

I bought a tang nano 4k module (GW1NSR-LV4C).
A simple Hello world (UART) and LED blinking  example using Hard Coded CM3 and FPGA would be nice.
I have never used such  solution so simple tutorial step by step  would be a great help .
Sipeed has only example with FPGA but without CM3.

Regards
up8051

[mc68000]

Actually, you can find license free download for this board at https://magicjellybeanfpga.github.io/mjb/software.html

Also check out the demo or university project to find sample codes in GitHub

[paf]

Actually, you can find license free download for this board at https://magicjellybeanfpga.github.io/mjb/software.html

Also check out the demo or university project to find sample codes in GitHub

On  https://magicjellybeanfpga.github.io/mjb/software.html

All the links point to the Linux version:
https://cdn.gowinsemi.com.cn/Gowin_V1.9.8_Education.tar.gz

The real links  the educational software can be found on:
https://www.gowinsemi.com/en/product/detail/31/

Mouser (my normal shop) says that all Gowin products (except the USB cable) are export restricted, and cannot be sold here.
They are very, very sophisticated 

They have Amazon Shops but sadly none is inside the EU (Germany, France or Spain).
UK is not inside the EU anymore…

[mon2]

@MC68000 - thanks for the link. It is a very good one for the Gowin line and is supported by the factory.

@paf, Mouser is stale with this information. Trumpism caused this company to be 'banned'. The owners of Gowin are US citizens residing in California. The 'ban' was lifted earlier this year. As noted earlier, the parts & costs for the Gowin products is multiple times the true pricing. It will be worth your while to check with Edge or even consider to buy offshore. Some kits are available on Aliexpress. Varying with your interest, the official Gowin kits are recommended so that you can receive factory support.

If Mouser blocks you - ask for their manager to clear the air and alert them to the following:

reference:

https://www.gowinsemi.com/en/about/detail/latest_news/65/

https://www.gowinsemi.com/en/about/detail/latest_news/70/

For us, we sourced a variety of kits that are not yet carried by Mouser and as Canadians, did not want to pay the Trump import tax with Edge Electronics. Rather, we paid for the shipping with our DHL account and had the goods shipped directly from HK to us (batch of FPGAs + kits).

We have the 4K kit from Speed on order and they expect to ship out on Monday. So many holidays in China - back to back. Swear we work harder to make a buck...

Will work on a tutorial but the magicjellybean is a great website to get you started. We also have the referenced kit on their github.

[tszaboo]

Don't give up. Gowin is an amazing company for support.

So I've figured out why the license wasn't working, and why the "Synplify pro" wasn't included. Apparently they dropped support for this, and they have their own GowinSynthetis. Too bad none of the guides I've read said anything about this, and I only found info in a twitter post!?
Anyway, I could implement their blinky project now.

About it being an amazing company... There are some accusations, that they acquired some Lattice IPs without payment. Their logo is literally Lattice's logo doubled and rotated. So haven't made up my mind about the company yet.

[mon2]

Have you emailed Gowin for technical support? Our experience has been very positive and often receive a proper response the same business day.

With Lattice, the local sales front line chimes in to gauge how many containers of their silicon we will buy before we can receive support. To date, we have had to wait weeks for the offshore support team. Yes Lattice has local and USA support teams but they are in the witness protection program. They are only for tier 1 customers. Know from personal experience that I have corrected numerous buggy documents for Lattice kits that years later, have still not been corrected. Most of the time, us as rookies are correcting the buggy Lattice docs.

[tszaboo]

Have you emailed Gowin for technical support? Our experience has been very positive and often receive a proper response the same business day.

With Lattice, the local sales front line chimes in to gauge how many containers of their silicon we will buy before we can receive support. To date, we have had to wait weeks for the offshore support team. Yes Lattice has local and USA support teams but they are in the witness protection program. They are only for tier 1 customers. Know from personal experience that I have corrected numerous buggy documents for Lattice kits that years later, have still not been corrected. Most of the time, us as rookies are correcting the buggy Lattice docs.

No I haven't. I bought the board for personal hobby projects, and I don't ask for support for that.
To be honest, the last time I did anything for FPGAs, that was maybe 12 years ago, with Spartan 3s.And the evaluation boards were really expensive. Though I would buy a 6 EUR board to keep my FPGA knowledge up to date (it is a no brainer), but this seems to have many extra features, like the flash and the large and usable SRAM, I'm kinda at a loss where to even start with a project.

[mon2]

No worries. I think we are confident enough to write up a nice document to save other developers some start up time. Will post it (soon I hope) after completion. As a company, we are quite excited by the flexibility of using (Gowin) FPGA devices into our products. Unfortunately, from our experience with other vendors, the buggy tools and most certainly the lack of proper support can halt the progress. Stay tuned...

[mc68000]

Accusations? That is just sales tactic. I heard they are doing this kind of FUDs to other new comers too. Do you see any lattice's FPGAs have Hard Arm Cortex M3 CPU? That is innovation. Gowin support both Arm and RISC-V CPU cores.

[mc68000]

I just saw a new step by step tutorial release from their MJB site. It may help.
https://github.com/magicjellybeanfpga/MiniStar/tree/main/projects/Tutorials/GW1NSR%20Demo
Here is the YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/3koIhB79yXs

[paf]

An article with two nice projects using the Tang Nano 4K:
https://justanotherelectronicsblog.com/?p=986

[davorin]

Just received some Tang Nano 4K boards....

Anyone using the IDE under Linux? Can't program the board without doing:

Code: [Select]

sudo rmmod ftdi_sio
sudo rmmod usbserial
first....the programmer wants to run "rmmod" and fails of course when IDE is launched as a regular user.

Then the programmer says it is an unknown cable...so I assume it only lists official GoWin DKs.

SRAM programming is fine then...but haven't figured out how to correctly flash the external P23Q32H. It does flash...but configuring the FPGA.

[mon2]

To reduce the cost of the kit or due to parts shortages, this kit is using the BOUFFALO LABS (China) CPU to emulate the FTDI FT2232H operation.

You can check the workings on Windows to confirm which device driver loads. We recently brought in the dedicated boards with the BOUFFALO LABS IC to see if it can possibly be used elsewhere. They just arrived in the past few days from Aliexpress.

We have attempted to email BOUFFALO LABS for details on the applied micro (BL702) but no reply has been received so far.

Some links:

https://www.cnx-software.com/2021/06/21/rv-debugger-plus-uart-jtag-debug-board-bl702-zigbee-ble-risc-v-soc/

https://www.electronics-lab.com/bl602-microcontroller-and-1-5-bl-63b-iot-module/

https://www.bouffalolab.com/

https://github.com/sipeed/RV-Debugger-BL702/blob/main/README.md

https://github.com/sipeed/RV-Debugger-BL702

https://github.com/sipeed/BL702_Si2c_uart_translation

[davorin]

Well..no Windows here (o;

Seems I am stuck being able to program SRAM confgiuration only.....but as the HDMI example doesn't show anything on my monitor....guess I can dump thise Tang Nano 4K boards (o;

[mon2]

Are you firmly seating the HDMI connector into the socket on the Tango 4K board ? Fairly confident that it worked fine for us but it has been a few weeks at least since testing.

We bought the version with the CMOS camera module and could see the camera act like a webcam and transmit onto the HDMI screen. Recall it looking like B&W output but it worked fine.

[davorin]

Yes..you are right...the camera feed is B/W only (o;
Found another HDMI cable....

Still beats me why it won't program the external SPI flash though as SRAM works fine...

[mon2]

What is the version of the Gowin Linux programmer that you are using ?

Be sure it is the latest release:

https://cdn.gowinsemi.com.cn/programmer1.9.8.01(build10027).Linux.x86.zip

Given that the Bouffalo micro is emulating the FTDI FT2232 USB bridge, the default Linux drivers should map onto this hardware. Moving forward, the Linux tools should then hook into the 'FTDI' interface to permit the same support for SRAM or FLASH use.

What issue exactly are you observing? Post your log from the Linux use.

[davorin]

Nothing in the logs..

Installed the new programmer through the whole package (zip package has no correct execution settings).
Now it doesn't even program the SRAM anymore:

Code: [Select]

Info: "SRAM Program" starting on device-1...
Warn: Unknown Cable
Info: Cost 0.19 second(s)
And I still have to unload ftdi_sio and usbserial modules before.

Even worse...the IDE made the old license file incompatible....so have to apply for a new license which takes now a few days due to weekend (o;

Update: Could restore the old IDE and use the former license file....when replacing then the original programmer with the latest one, not even SRAM programming is possible anymore...

The Linux setup is totally broken in my opinion..other companies do a lot better ;-)

[mon2]

LOL. Linux has always been fun. Suggest for you to contact their tech support:

support@sipeed.com

and post your updates here for future readers.

The IDE Gowin tool on Windows features the programmer inside the GUI screen.

Does the Linux version of the IDE tool not offer the integrated programmer ?

See if this helps:

https://titanwolf.org/Network/Articles/Article?AID=7ccbc8c3-e0c1-4dc3-99fe-6aba13992924

[TimCambridge]

I am not an expert but for similar Linux driver problems I have seen this advice: unload the 'usbtest' module from the kernel (modprobe -r usbtest) and this will allow the program to connect to the device.

Also: look for clues in dmesg.

HTH