Simplified AI development with maker-friendly FPGA board and demo

Arrow Electronics is facilitating AI development for professionals and makers with the CYC5000 FPGA board in a compact 25mm x 70.7mm form factor. With an Arduino-compatible header, the plug-and-play board simplifies building IoT edge devices using the programmable logic, RISC-V with Altera's Nios V, DSP accelerators, and hard IP blocks.

Easy to use and with an Arrow USB Programmer2 on board, the board is ready for an AI camera application with a neural network running. The board is optimised for low power consumption and can be used for learning, proof of concept, or full production in customised versions.

The board's main feature is the Altera Cyclone V FPGA, which has 25,000 logic elements, 25 DSP blocks, 50 18x18 multipliers, and FPGA memory blocks on-chip. The board also contains 64MBit SDRAM and 64MBit Flash, a USB interface, and runs from a single 5V supply.

As well as the Arduino header, a CRUVI connector alleviates adding high-speed signal adapters for extra interfaces and applications. The AI camera demo employs an image sensor connected via the CRUVI adapter and runs a convolutional neural network, image filtering, MIPI in, and HDMI out on the Cyclone V. Implemented in less than half of the FPGA's available logic elements, the algorithm can analyse 10k samples per second, at only a few hundred milliwatts, highlighting opportunities for edge AI with a green footprint.