The $15 Sipeed Tang Nano 9K FPGA Puts Custom-Chip Logic in Hobbyists' Hands

blaizedsouza · x · 2026-09-09

• This retweet walks through the Sipeed Tang Nano 9K dev board: a $15 board built on Gowin's GW1NR-9 FPGA with 8,640 logic blocks, versus millions of dollars and over a year to make your own chip.
• An FPGA sells reconfigurable space, not a fixed function: describe a circuit, send it over USB, and the silicon wires itself into it—tomorrow it can become a video card, motor controller, or a rebuilt 1983 Nintendo. The chip has no HDMI transmitter; the picture is generated from plain logic.
• The "R" in the part number means a 64-megabit memory die lives in the same package, so the chip-to-memory link never leaves the plastic.
• The quoted article notes the semiconductor market grew from $339B in 2016 to $795.6B in 2025 (+26.2% YoY), with chips now the industry's binding constraint.

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