iceflashprog

A simple USB flash programmer for iCE40-based FPGA development boards.

Overview

iceflashprog is a USB flash memory programmer designed for Olimex's line of Lattice iCE40 FPGA evaluation boards. It targets boards with standard UEXT programming headers, but is potentially adaptable to other evaluation boards that use the same FPGAs or flash memories.

The hardware is based on the stm32f0-usbd-devboard, running bare-metal firmware on an STM32F042 microcontroller (ARM Cortex-M0, 48 MHz). The device implements a USB HID interface, which means it is automatically recognized by any operating system without installing drivers.

The project includes firmware for the microcontroller and a host software CLI tool, written in Go, for reading and writing the flash memory from a computer. Prebuilt binaries are available for Linux (amd64 and arm64), macOS (arm64), and Windows (amd64).

Key highlights

• No drivers required -- USB HID class device, recognized natively by all major operating systems
• DMA-based SPI -- uses DMA for SPI flash communication, with automatic write verification after each page write
• Watchdog protection -- independent watchdog resets the device if the host stops communicating, preventing lockups
• Cross-platform host software -- Go CLI tool with prebuilt binaries for Linux, macOS, and Windows
• 3D-printable case -- OpenSCAD-designed enclosure compatible with M2 self-tapping screws
• Open source -- firmware and host software released under GPL-2.0-only license

Explore further

• Assembly -- hardware wiring, LED behavior, and 3D-printed case
• Firmware -- building, flashing, architecture, and USB HID protocol
• Host software -- installation and usage of the iceflashprog CLI tool
• Source code -- GitHub repository
• stm32f0-usbd-devboard -- the base hardware for this project