Hey folks, we're back again. This time, we are starting to take a more serious look at designing & putting together a full scale online lab series surrounding FPGA development boards. So, rather than restricting ourselves to focus on a single brand, some lab series appears to be more effective when there is a variety in the content itself. As such, we are hoping to develop a full length series (yes! all 60-sessions) over the course of a 12-month period. This intended FPGA series will likely begin it's first online lab session some time in the later part of June or mid-July 2018.
First Things First - Sponsorship of Research Materials
Before we can even start the lab series, we have to do one thing first, and that is the putting together of the lab content (including lab exercises and projects). So, there are probably a couple of ways we can do this and we have thought of two so far.
One - we can seek out the product sponsorship/partnership with Xilinx & Digilent, but experience tells us that such things might take time.
Two - we can seek people or companies with have used Xilinx/Digilent FPGA development boards and relevant products who don't mind giving it away to us for free.
For the early initial stages of doing our lab series content research, we realised that we don't actually need new products, although that would have been even more amazing. But used products can be just as helpful to the research process. Between now and end of June is only 6 weeks away, and 8 weeks to mid-July, so it would be extremely helpful if you have boards you like to contribute to the series' content research and you don't mind doing an express shipping. Honestly, we can't wait 1 month or two weeks for the items to be shipped, that could potentially delay the scheduling of the series.
As much as possible, we hope to maintain a certain schedule to all our lab series here so that others who's visiting us and following along with the series can stick to a somewhat consistent schedule.
FPGA-related Modules, Cables, Testing tools, kits, so on
Another important area for our research will also include the research & use of various cables, connectors, pMod modules, sensors, testing tools and kits. Anything that can help to inspire ideas for the lab series/curriculum. Again, we honestly don't mind that they are used before as long as it's still in relatively good working condition.
The FPGA Lab Series is going to be just like every other lab series that we will be creating and running on onlinelabseries, the focus will be on practical use cases and in-depth product how-tos. At the end of the day, after watching our series/sessions, you will be able to walk away knowing the kind of problems those products can help you to solve.
Full-Scale Sponsorship
We are clearly still seeking a full-scale sponsorship/partnership with companies like Xilinx as well as Digilent, which both carries products related to FPGA. And we will continue to reach out to them in the coming days.
Having an official backing in a lab series is very important to us because the product technical support plays a huge role. It is very common for viewers to develop questions and queries, and with those questions, the product support becomes a bridge for getting the necessary answers (if somehow we are unable to answer your's in time). This is also one of the benefits of why we have the companion articles for each lab session, this way, we can always get back to you with a response after the live session is over.
In Closing
So, do you have a used Digilent or Xilinx related FPGA product that you like to donate to us? Do let us know by emailing to info@onlinelabseries.com. And if you are a reseller or distributor and you would like to sponsor us for the series on behalf of Xilinx/Digilent, you can drop us an email as well.