QuickLogic EOS S3 Brings Machine Learning to the SparkFun Thing Plus Form Factor
Arm Cortex-M4, eFPGA, sensors, and more!
QuickLogic and SparkFun are teaming up to produce a small form factor, open source FPGA development board, called the SparkFun Thing Plus - QuickLogic EOS S3. It combines an Arm processor, embedded FPGA, and sensors into a familiar form factor.
"SparkFun Thing Plus - QuickLogic EOS S3 is a collaboration between SparkFun and QuickLogic. We tookQuickLogic's QuickFeather, updated the onboard sensor selection and ported it to the SparkFun Thing Plus form factor, a critical piece of which is a Qwuiic connector."
Previously Hackster wrote about the fantastic QuickFeather. The new Thing Plus EOS S3 uses the hardware from that design in a new format. The Thing Plus measures only 2.75 x 0.9 inches (70 by 22.9mm). Even in such a small space, there are 34 GPIO pins available for machine learning and IoT applications.
The microcontroller core is a Cortex-M4 running up to 80MHz. The MCU has 512kb of SRAM and support for up to 16 Mbit SPI NOR-Flash memory. The Embedded FPGA provides over 2,400 effective logic cells and 64kb of dedicated RAM.
The standard array of communication protocols, like USB, UART, I2C, I2S, and SPI, are available. A SparkFun Qwiic connector also provides I2C access. Qwiic is a small 4-pin JST connector that simplifies adding I2C-compatible break outboards, sensors, displays, and other components to the development board.
Power options include USB-C or a LiPo battery. There is onboard support for charging the battery with the very popular Microchip MCP73831/2 charge controller.
Edge computing and machine learning applications can benefit from the accelerometer and PDM microphone included on the SparkFun Thing Plus - QuickLogic EOS S3. Software support includes RTOS, TensorFlow Lite, and SensiML.
Designers can develop the eFPGA using SymbiFlow or Renode. SymbiFlow is an open source, end-to-end FPGA synthesis toolchain.
There are additional details on the QuickLogic product page and a SparkFun blog post introducing the board. At the time of writing, there is a CrowdSupply campaign for the SparkFun Thing Plus QuickLogic EOS S3. Price starts at $39 to back the project.
