GoKawiil
Tech News
FunnyPlaying has released the FPGB Mini, a handheld barely bigger than a Game Boy cartridge that uses FPGA hardware to emulate Game Boy games with near-perfect accuracy. It supports both physical cartridges and ROMs via microSD, features a 2.98-inch 800x720 IPS screen, and runs on an 1800 mAh battery for four to six hours of play. The standard price is $89, though early units sold for $69.
FunnyPlaying has released the FPGB Mini, a compact FPGA-based handheld that plays original Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges as well as ROMs from a microSD card. Priced at $69.99 for its first limited batch of 20 units, it undercuts the $239.99 Analogue Pocket significantly, though it lacks support for GBA or Game Gear cartridges.
Zettascale, a YC S24 startup, is recruiting ASIC and FPGA engineers to design custom chips aimed at advancing artificial superintelligence hardware. The company's careers page invites applicants without a specific listed role to send a demo of prior work to its hiring email for consideration.
An independent hardware developer has extended their z486_MiSTer project, a software-defined 486 PC built on FPGA hardware, by adding a working recreation of the original 3dfx Voodoo Graphics (SST-1) chip called zSST. Combined into a system dubbed z486 XL, running on a Xilinx KV260 board at 100 MHz, the setup can run period DOS games like Tomb Raider using their original 3dfx renderer.
Hardware hackers, led by q3k, reverse-engineered the Colorlight 5A-75B, a cheap receiver card originally built for modular LED displays, turning it into an accessible development board for Lattice's ECP5 FPGA. Priced around $20-25, the board pairs the FPGA with dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, SDRAM, flash storage, and HUB75 outputs, and can be programmed via an open-source toolchain using Yosys once a JTAG header is soldered on.
Fomu is a tiny programmable device that plugs directly into a USB-A port, combining an FPGA chip, four touch pads, and an RGB LED in a compact plastic case. It ships with enough RAM and storage to run Python natively, while also supporting a RISC-V softcore and other softcores like LM32 and OpenRISC, all programmable through a fully open-source toolchain without accounts, NDAs, or heavy installers.
WebFPGA has introduced a web-based development environment that lets users program FPGA devices directly from their browser after purchasing a compatible board. The project, which originated on Kickstarter, also offers a command-line option for Linux users and includes community-shared demo projects.
Commodore has released the Commodore 77, a special-edition version of its Commodore 64 Ultimate reimagined with Cyberpunk 2077 branding. It features a Night City-inspired design, an exclusive 8-bit demo with SID music, an upgraded FPGA chip reaching 77MHz, and themed accessories including pins, stickers, and a manual with BASIC programs. The unit is available for pre-order at $377, with shipping expected in February 2027.
Analogue's FPGA-based N64 remake, the Analogue 3D, outputs video at up to 3,840 x 2,160 pixels, but the original games it plays were rendered natively at far lower resolutions, typically around 320 x 240 and occasionally up to 640 x 480. The console upscales and cleans up that old output—removing blur, distance fog, and choppy frame rates—rather than generating new high-resolution textures or geometry.