[amsat-bb] FPGA iCEBreaker Workshop - digital communications for amateur satellites

[Michelle Thompson]

Greetings all!

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are one of three fundamental types
of digital architectures used for communications R&D.

The others are general purpose processors and graphical processing units
(GPUs).

This fall, in San Diego, California, there will be an FPGA course sponsored
by Open Research Institute. There are 10 spots with amateur space
communications as the focus of the work.

FPGAs are a primary technology in modern satellite communications. They're
used in R&D and in deployment.

It is difficult to get started with FPGA design for several reasons. The
tools have traditionally been proprietary. The companies that make the
tools price them for large corporations to buy. Coursework for FPGA design
is rare.

This is where iCEBreaker makes a difference.

An iCEBreaker Workshop 10 pack has been made available, and arrived today.
This kit is described at this link
https://www.crowdsupply.com/1bitsquared/icebreaker-fpga

We (me and a few other local volunteers) will use this hardware to put on a
course for anyone interested in amateur radio satellite and terrestrial
development. All course materials will be published.

The first course will be in San Diego. If you're in the area, please get in
touch! MakerPlace and CoLab are the likely sites.

Later workshops could be at places like Symposium, Xenia, or Hamcation. The
full course cannot be accomplished in a day, but a workshop could get the
basics across and provide a substantial boost to motivated amateur
satellite engineering volunteers.

Let me know what you think!

more soon,
-Michelle W5NYV