FPGA dev board picker
Curated comparison of boards we'd actually recommend, from first-blinky to Linux-capable SoC. Prices are approximate street prices.
| Board | Vendor | Chip | Logic cells | Block RAM | ~Price | Best for | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| iCEstick | Lattice | iCE40HX1K | 1,280 | 64 Kb | $49 | First open-toolchain project (yosys/nextpnr) | details |
| iCEBreaker | Lattice | iCE40UP5K | 5,280 | 120 Kb + 1 Mb SPRAM | $79 | Open-source toolchain flagship, PMOD ecosystem | details |
| TinyFPGA BX | Lattice | iCE40LP8K | 7,680 | 128 Kb | $49 | Tiny breadboard-friendly projects | details |
| Tang Nano 9K | Gowin | GW1NR-9 | 8,640 | 468 Kb | $18 | Cheapest real FPGA with HDMI, great value | details |
| Tang Nano 20K | Gowin | GW2AR-18 | 20,736 | 828 Kb | $30 | Retro-gaming cores (NES/SNES) on a budget | details |
| ULX3S | Lattice | ECP5-85F | 84,000 | 3.7 Mb | $180 | Big open-toolchain designs, RISC-V SoCs, HDMI | details |
| Cmod A7-35T | AMD/Xilinx | Artix-7 XC7A35T | 33,280 | 1.8 Mb | $99 | Breadboardable Artix-7 with Vivado flow | details |
| Basys 3 | AMD/Xilinx | Artix-7 XC7A35T | 33,280 | 1.8 Mb | $165 | The classic university teaching board (switches/7-seg/VGA) | details |
| Arty A7-100T | AMD/Xilinx | Artix-7 XC7A100T | 101,440 | 4.9 Mb | $299 | Serious hobby/pro Artix-7 work, MicroBlaze, Ethernet | details |
| Nexys A7-100T | AMD/Xilinx | Artix-7 XC7A100T | 101,440 | 4.9 Mb | $349 | Coursework with lots of onboard I/O and DDR2 | details |
| Zybo Z7-20 | AMD/Xilinx | Zynq-7020 SoC | 85,000 | 4.9 Mb | $299 | ARM + FPGA (Linux on chip), video pipelines | details |
| PYNQ-Z2 | AMD/Xilinx | Zynq-7020 SoC | 85,000 | 4.9 Mb | $219 | Python-driven FPGA (PYNQ framework), teaching SoC | details |
| Kria KV260 | AMD/Xilinx | Zynq UltraScale+ K26 | 256,000 | 11.7 Mb + UltraRAM | $249 | Vision AI / serious embedded Linux + PL, great $/logic | details |
| DE10-Lite | Intel/Altera | MAX 10 10M50 | 50,000 | 1.6 Mb | $140 | Quartus teaching board, instant-on flash FPGA | details |
| DE10-Nano | Intel/Altera | Cyclone V SoC 5CSEBA6 | 110,000 | 5.5 Mb | $225 | MiSTer retro-gaming platform, ARM + FPGA | details |
| DE0-Nano | Intel/Altera | Cyclone IV EP4CE22 | 22,320 | 0.6 Mb | $99 | Compact classic for embedded/robotics tinkering | details |
| Alchitry Au V2 | AMD/Xilinx | Artix-7 XC7A35T | 33,280 | 1.8 Mb | $129 | Maker-friendly Artix-7 with stackable I/O elements | details |
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