ValentFX Unveils Open‑Source FPGA Add‑Ons for BeagleBone & Raspberry Pi

At this year’s Maker Faire in New York City, ValentFX introduced a suite of open‑source FPGA add‑ons that seamlessly stack onto the popular BeagleBone and Raspberry Pi single‑board computers. The new boards—named Logi‑Bone and Logi‑Pi—utilize Xilinx Spartan‑6 LX9 FPGAs, provide extensive Arduino and PMOD expansion, and come with fully‑supported Linux drivers for both ARM platforms.

During the event, ValentFX also showcased BBot, a BeagleBone‑based drink‑serving robot that was built on an earlier version of the Logi‑Mark1 FPGA board. Although the Logi series is still in development and not yet available for retail purchase, the company has released schematics, user manuals, and open‑source firmware to enable enthusiasts to prototype with the hardware.

ValentFX founder Michael Jones told LinuxGizmos that they are in talks with distributors and plan to launch a Kickstarter campaign in the coming months. The open‑source ecosystem includes a Logi‑Kernel patch, a Logi Loader application for Linux, and a dedicated app‑store client that simplifies downloading and running FPGA‑based applications on the BeagleBone or Raspberry Pi.

Complete HDL source for the Spartan‑6 LX9 is available, along with tutorials that walk users through basic FPGA programming. While the Spartan‑6 is positioned at the lower end of Xilinx’s FPGA lineup, its affordability and the robust community support make it an attractive choice for hobbyists and developers looking to add reconfigurable logic to their projects.

In contrast, Xilinx’s Zynq‑7000 family—seen in boards such as the Parallella and Avnet’s ZedBoard—pairs an Artix‑7 FPGA with dual‑core Cortex‑A9 processors and a high‑speed AXI4 interconnect. ValentFX’s Logi boards rely on slower GPMC and I²C links to the ARM host, but Jones argues that the simpler architecture offers faster development cycles and lower cost for users who already own a BeagleBone or Raspberry Pi.

Applications already ported to the Logi platform include a bitcoin miner, a machine‑vision pipeline, and autonomous vehicle control systems. Potential future uses include software‑defined radio (SDR) and other real‑time signal processing tasks.

Drivers expose the FPGA’s custom peripherals through the Wishbone bus, allowing developers to write firmware in C/C++ or Python. Both Logi‑Bone and Logi‑Pi ship with 256 MB of RAM, and share a common set of I²C, SPI, UART, and GPIO interfaces, though Logi‑Bone utilizes GPMC extensively while Logi‑Pi offers additional UART and programmable GPIO lines.

The boards support more than 200 Arduino‑Due‑compatible shields via a standard Arduino x1 connector, and provide up to 59 PMOD‑compatible peripherals through four Digilent PMOD expansion ports. ValentFX has already released two PMOD modules—Logi‑Cam and Logi‑Edu—designed specifically for the platform.

Additional features include 10 LVDS‑tuned display pairs, SATA storage support, pushbuttons, DIP switches, and 32 FPGA I/O pins accessible through the Arduino and PMOD headers.