Morph-IC-II [FTDI]

The Morph-IC-II is a USB based FPGA development module featuring the Altera Cyclone-II FPGA with the FTDI FT2232H USB to UART/FIFO/MPSSE converter IC. The module provides integration of Hi-Speed USB capability (480Mbit/s) with an FPGA, to enable ultra-fast software based FPGA configuration/reconfiguration and communication using the FTDI royalty free drivers.
The concept of the Morph-IC-II is to provide the ability to easily alter the function and capability of a silicon unit via software, allowing multiple functions to be implemented within the same silicon, whilst reducing bill of materials and silicon cost.

Features include:

Powerful silicon development platform. Software re-configurability allows users to support multiple functions within a single silicon platform.

High performance, low power Altera Cyclone-II EP2C5F256C8N FPGA unit.
– 4,608 embedded FPGA Logic Elements (about 80,000 Gates typically).
– 26 M4K RAM blocks (119Kbits), 13 embedded multipliers and Nios II embedded processor support.

USB 2.0 Hi-speed (480Mbits/s) connection via FT2232H USB to dual channel UART/FIFO/MPSSE IC.
– Supports FPGA-PC USB Data transfers at up to 40MBytes/s.
– Supports ultra-fast software based configuration/reconfiguration of FPGA (less than 100ms).

Range of flexible for FPGA communication interfaces, including FIFO interface, and MPSSE configurable serial controller interface providing support for SPI and I2C and other serial protocols.

Compact module features up to 124 x 0.1 inch pitch headers providing access to 96 I/Os on the FPGA and FT2232H module.

Onboard USB type B connector provides connection to a PC, supporting software communication via FTDI VCP and D2XX API drivers. The D2XX API supports communication via C/C++ as well as other software languages.

Onboard JTAG port connector for FPGA boundary scan, test and configuration. JTAG interface also accessible via module header pins.

Module is supplied with VHDL reference designs, software samples and utilities. FPGA programming supported by free Quartus II Web Edition Software from Altera.

Target Applications:

Wide range of VLSI logic circuit design applications including ASIC prototyping, FPGA design for glue-logic or IP development. The wide range resources including FPGA reference designs, software utilities and samples also makes the module ideal as a low-cost educational platform.