GOWIN Semiconductor Corp., the world’s fastest-growing programmable logic company, announces a new user community called Magic Jelly Bean. Magic Jelly Bean focuses on enabling schools, universities, and hobbyists with access to low-cost 3rd party development boards that are shipped locally along with companion example designs and community forums.
MagicJellyBean.org provides up-to-date information on simple and easy-to-use development boards and tutorials currently featuring the MiniStar development kit loaded with GOWIN’s GW1NS-4C µSoC FPGA. It also provides references to purchasing sites through domestic distribution vendors such as Amazon, making local shipping very easy. Community forums on Reddit and Github Discussions provide a discussion and support platform for students, makers, and hobbyists to assist in project development.
“FPGAs use programming languages similar to C and C++. However, there is a fundamental architectural difference compared to most other programming languages; all code written is executed at the same time instead of sequentially. This provides a tremendous amount of computing efficiency and flexibility, but also comes with a small learning curve to effectively utilize,” said Grant Jennings, Senior Director of International Marketing for GOWIN Semiconductor. “Magic Jelly Bean enables engineers of experience levels to learn the capabilities of GOWIN devices with easy-to-use tools and example designs making FPGA development a trivial and second nature exercise.”
MagicJellyBean.org provides student versions of GOWIN EDA and GOWIN MCU Designer that can be easily downloaded and installed without requesting a license file. The design software is available on Windows and Linux and allows developers to program both GOWIN FPGAs and microprocessors on the development boards available. Project files are provided on github, allowing for bug reports, updates, additional reference project submissions, and communication related to the Magic Jelly Bean community itself.
MagicJellyBean.org is an independent site featuring innovative FPGA products from GOWIN. Current and future GOWIN customers can continue to fulfill their production needs through the existing distribution partners including Mouser (https://www.mouser.com/manufacturer/gowin/product-line/), Edge Electronics (www.edgeelectronics.com), and Rutronik (www.rutronik.com). World-class application and sales support is always available through the website www.gowinsemi.com or by contacting the local sales representatives directly.
“Adding Amazon Store capability to support educational and hobby users is a natural progression and an excellent complement to our existing well established Distributor partners,” said Mike Furnival, Vice President of International Sales at GOWIN Semiconductor. “In these challenging times for global semiconductor supply taking care of smaller, but nonetheless important, potential future customers remains very important for the development of our industry. As these embryonic entities develop they will, in turn, become customers for our Distributors contriving to create a win-win situation for all involved parties.”