RP2040 - 1x unit price = $0.70
iCE40 - 1x unit price = $2.50
I'm not sure if low power is necessarily a priority for a debug probe that's always hooked up to a computer, but the RP2040 seems competitive with power consumption. From what I can see in the datasheets, they're both on a 40nm process node.
I've never used the iCE40, is it easy to get a toolchain up and running for it? I haven't done any FPGA programming before but setting up the tooling always seemed more intimidating than using a standard C or Rust toolchain for a microcontroller.
Given the project needs more than just the MCU (or FPGA) chip itself, best to compare finished forms. The project OP posted uses a Pi Pico (aka ~$4) and a comparable form factor for an iCE40 is about $35-40ish.
RP2040 - 1x unit price = $0.70 iCE40 - 1x unit price = $2.50
I'm not sure if low power is necessarily a priority for a debug probe that's always hooked up to a computer, but the RP2040 seems competitive with power consumption. From what I can see in the datasheets, they're both on a 40nm process node.
I've never used the iCE40, is it easy to get a toolchain up and running for it? I haven't done any FPGA programming before but setting up the tooling always seemed more intimidating than using a standard C or Rust toolchain for a microcontroller.
I'd still opt for the RP2040 in this case.
RP2040 Datasheet - https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/rp2040/rp2040-datasheet.p...
iCE40 Datasheet - https://www.latticesemi.com/~/media/LatticeSemi/Documents/Da...