Shrike FPGA is a compact, open-source development board that pairs the RP2040 microcontroller with the Renesas ForgeFPGA, enabling you to build powerful custom logic systems, educational experiments, and real-world hardware interfaces. It includes fully open documentation and a USB Type-C port for programming and power.

Whether you’re a student, educator, embedded developer, or just curious about FPGAs, Shrike gives you an elegant, low-cost platform you can use to dive into the world of reconfigurable computing.

Built for Learning, Designed for Creation

Shrike gives you a full-stack playground for hardware learning. Write Verilog, load bitstreams, and control your logic from the RP2040. It’s perfect for:

• Digital design courses
• Embedded systems projects
• Hardware interfaces
• Robotics and automation
• Creative experimentation

Example Projects – Ready to Flash or Modify

Shrike FPGA empowers users to go far beyond basic demos by enabling hands-on, real-world hardware design projects. One of the standout features is the ability to implement custom communication protocols, such as SPI, I2C, and UART, directly in Verilog. This gives you complete control over signal timing and protocol behavior — ideal for driving displays, sensors, or designing your own hardware interfaces without relying on black-box libraries.

For those interested in retro computing or computer architecture, Shrike lets you build a CHIP-8 or even a custom 8-bit CPU core. You can run classic games or simple programs on hardware you’ve designed from scratch — a fun and visual way to understand instruction sets, memory addressing, and CPU design fundamentals. It’s a playful yet powerful gateway to low-level computing concepts.

Shrike also supports more advanced and creative applications. You can experiment with security features like physical unclonable functions (PUFs) to create hardware-based authentication systems, or design your own MIDI controllers and gamepads using USB-HID. With the FPGA handling input scanning and the RP2040 managing USB communication, you get responsive, low-latency input for music, gaming, or custom interactive projects — all from a compact and open-source hardware platform.

Features & Specfications

• Renesas ForgeFPGA (SLG47910V,1120 LUTs)
• Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU
• 6-bit high-speed bridge between MCU & FPGA
• USB Type-C for programming & power
• Dimensions: 60 x 25 mm
• Weight: 30 g

Block Diagram

Open Source

Shrike is open hardware. We’ll give everyone access to full documentation after the campaign closes.

Shrike comes with a MicroPython-based utility to program the FPGA, along with open-source Verilog examples for using Renesas FPGAs (UART, I2C, RISC-V). It also includes a free and easy-to-use tool provided by Renesas that the community can utilize.

Interested in This Project?

You can sign up at the top of this page to be notified when the campaign launches and to receive other updates. We only send out relevant content, and you can unsubscribe at any time.