Felix
I want to get started with FPGAs but not sure where to start.
I guess there are only three main vendors to choose from (Lattice, Xilinx, Altera) but what development board? What chip?
Any open source toolchains to recommend ideally running on Mac?
I guess I will use VHDL since I already started learning and this is what is also used in my company.
Jan 21 at 3:36pmWeb
Show threadFelixApr 2
Yesterday together with @pandora I finally managed to get some LEDs statically lit on my custom FPGA devboard, now we are trying to get familiar with the options of toolchains...
Show threadFelixApr 3
There is a certain excitement when you successfully run your first codes while you are still completely new to FPGAs, it is even more exciting when it works on the board you designed yourself.
Yes, a simple 8 bit counter with LEDs does fill me with joy knowing that I wrote the complete code myself including the clock prescaler.
Show threadEkki DF4ORJan 21

@fesix Why not get a MCH 2022 badge? It includes an ICE40UP5K FPGA, and MCH offered some introductory workshops.

I am sure someone will be willing to sell their badge.

Show threadgigabecquerelJan 21
@fesix Pinging @stdlogicvector and @thezoq2
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Jan 21

@fesix Lattice iCE40 and Lattice ECP5 have by far the best support from the open source toolchain (Yosys+nextpnr). Yosys+nextpnr do run on Mac. VHDL is not as well supported as SystemVerilog; you will need to compile GHDL separately and use it with Yosys as a plugin.

Xilinx and Altera are not supported by the FOSS toolchain.

Show threadTheZoq2Jan 21

@whitequark @fesix

oss-cad-suite includes GHDL as far as I can tell so it would save the compilation step at least

Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Jan 21

@thezoq2 @fesix oh yeah good point

... does it include Surfer yet? (it should!)

Show threadTheZoq2Jan 21
@whitequark @fesix Looks like it does :)
Show threadTheZoq2Jan 21

@fesix Hell yeah, welcome! For open source support, you want to go with lattice, or possibly gowin.

My favourite dev board is the https://radiona.org/ulx3s/. If it is within your budget, it's a solid choice

For the open source toolchain you will want, yosys and nextpnr. By far the simplest option is to just install https://github.com/YosysHQ/oss-cad-suite-build

I'm not entirely sure how to do VHDL, yosys by default assumes Verilog. You will want to use GHDL for simulation, and the GHDL plugin for yosys

ULX3S

Show threadcrepererumJan 21

@fesix I wrote this piece a while back:
https://crepererum.net/fpga-intro/

I would probably use https://spade-lang.org/ nowadays, but I think the overview is still somewhat correct. Maybe it helps you.

crepererum - FPGAs for Software Engineers

crepererum
Show threadperaJan 21
@fesix if money is a concern you could also get a Sipeed Tang Nano 9K, they cost just 12 pounds and are compatible with FOSS tools, I wrote a wee article about it a year ago (not sure if it's up to date though): https://blog.peramid.es/posts/2024-10-19-fpga.html
Programming an FPGA with a FOSS toolchain | pera's blog

Show threadTheMagicalCJan 21
@fesix paging @blahajparty.pds.witchcraft.systems
Show threadlarsJan 21
@fesix Das habe ich auch noch auf dem Zettel. Heise hatte dazu vor einer Weile einen Artikel... hab aber noch nicht die Zeit gefunden, ihn zu lesen.