On Efinix Devboards like Trion T20 BGA256 Development Kit you connect to it using USB, This gives you programming capability and debugging.

The interface between USB and the Efinix chip is the FT2232 device. If you were to make a board would you use the same circuit and add on the FT2232 device even though it may only be used for development and programming?. For production you may want to save £5 and just have a programming connector and have the programming control in a box.

I couldn’t find a programming pod to be able to program Efinix FPGA’s, I may not have been looking in the correct places. So had the urge to just go and make one.

A programming pod can be made with FT2232H Mini Module they are around £22, but you only need one and can program many many boards.

The pins dont quite lend themselves for attaching a ribbon cable. However its perfect for mounting on another board. Then run ribbon cables from the base board.

Below is a schematic for the pin out. Power to the board it suppled to the mini-module from the USB.

Feel free to use the Gerber files to get some PCB’s made. I have made a few and given them to companies I design the FPGA boards for.