Introducing Chiprentals, an FPGA renting platform

NOTE: This service is currently in the Beta stage. Users can access the hardware free of cost.

For the longest time, hardware design and education has been on the backfoot due to the high barrier to entry and the high cost of learning tools unlike software. Students struggle to get access to tools like FPGA development boards due to purely monetary reasons. Additionally, they often need high spec computers to be able to use heavy tools like Vivado and Vitis. This is our attempt to solve this problem and democratize hardware education by eliminating the very need for students to purchase these boards.

Chiprentals is a service by thedatabus.io that lets users access FPGA development boards over the internet and perform projects and experiments without having to purchase and maintain the expensive hardware. Users can interact with a limited subset of the buttons and switches on the board via this environment.

The service is at the pilot stage, currently offering the PYNQ-Z2 development board connected to a linux based host system with Vivado and Vitis installed. Users can perform complete end to end projects while being able to see the board through a webcam and also press the buttons and flip the switches through the UI.

Get access to a real world linux host environment

Interact with the Hardware via a GUI and observe outputs via a webcam

Complete python ecosystem through jupyter notebooks

Load and control FPGA hardware directly from python with the power of PYNQ

We aim to expand this arsenal and offer many more boards and tools including the open source toolchain for the Lattice ICE series of FPGAs very soon.

The service is priced at a very minimal amount and if we have enough demand for it from the community, we shall push towards making it even cheaper and accessible to every student of hardware design.

The time sharing of this infrastructure works on scheduling slots and then accessing the environment during that time.

To reserve access to the the pynq-z2 at your convenient time, write to us at thedatabus.io@gmail.com . We can come up with a suitable time window for you to access the board as per your convenience.

For detailed documentation on using the pynq-z2 environment, click_here

For a demo walkthrough video of the entire process of reserving and using hardware, click_here

NOTE: We are unable to provide the service in India at the moment due to some payment restrictions that we could not get through. However, we guarantee that given enough interest in the service from the rest of the world, we will solve these issue within a matter of a few weeks. Stay Tuned.