Silicon Witchery releases development board integrating Nordic SoC and Lattice FPGA

     Swedish embedded module supplier Silicon Witchery has released a very compact module S1 designed to interface the Nordic Semi nRF52840 into the most space-constrained projects, which also integrates the Lattice iCE40 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA).

     "Designed for efficient artificial intelligence on the smallest edge devices." Silicon Witchery claims it combines microprocessor and FPGA devices. “The S1 is designed to simplify your design and save you months of RF HDI [Radio Frequency High Density Interconnect] layout. The S1 is a combination of four key components, which are critical for developing tiny battery powered products. It meets application requirements of demanding algorithms while consuming as little power as possible.”

      Although the S1 module measures only 11 x 6 mm (about 0.43 x 0.24 inches), it contains four key modules: a power management integrated circuit (PMIC) with a buck-boost converter and support for low voltage regulation 32Mb external SPI Flash for storage; Nordic nRF52840 SoC with 64MHz Arm Cortex-M4 microprocessor; and Lattice iCE40 FPGA with 5k LUTs and dedicated DSP core.

      Silicon Witchery claims that microprocessors and FPGAs can run always-on inference tasks at the edge while consuming as little as 75µA. Meanwhile, the integrated antenna provides wireless connectivity via Bluetooth 5.2, supporting both Remote and Thread. Overall, the module includes two general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins from nRF52 with analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) and low-power wake-up support, and the other eight GPIO pins of the FPGA include I2C, I3C , SPI and USB, and three adjustable Vout rails with up to 5.5V buck or boost.

      In addition to the module itself, Silicon Witchery has released two development kits: the S1 Popout Board, which provides IO function configuration for the module, a debug port for the Cortex microprocessor, and a port for a Li-polymer battery and a StemmaQT/Qwiic . Compatible ports to support external sensors. And the S1 ECG Kit, which drives a low-power three-probe ECG with an integrated Li-polymer battery and onboard LEDs.