ADC26: Maynooth University - FPGA Library

We spoke to Victor and Amman from Maynooth University about the Csound FPGA Library, an open-source project connected to Csound and FPGA-based audio development.

The discussion covered why FPGAs remain less common in audio than conventional processors. Development complexity remains a factor, and the project addresses this by taking C++ functional definitions directly to programmable FPGA hardware.

The library is part of the Csound project, but it also works separately as a library for applications such as modular synthesizer development. FPGA processing supports high sample rates, low latency and high throughput. Example applications include 5 MHz oscillators, audio-rate modulation and high-throughput spectral processing.

The system architecture combines an ARM Cortex processing system running Csound with FPGA programmable logic handling audio processing. Development boards for FPGA work are available in a similar way to microcontroller kits, and the library runs on those boards. Typical hardware costs sit around £200–£300.
More Info: https://csound.com/