A Free and Open Source Verilog-to-Bitstream Flow for iCE40 FPGAs

I figure johnbeetem will like this talk from 32c3 yesterday:

A Free and Open Source Verilog-to-Bitstream Flow for iCE40 FPGAs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rYiGDDUIzg

This video is unavailable.

A Free and Open Source Verilog-to-Bitstream Flow for iCE40 FPGAsYosys (Yosys Open Synthesis Suite) is an Open Source Verilog synthesis and verification tool.Project IceStorm aims at reverse engineering and documenting the bit-stream format of Lattice iCE40 FPGAs and providing simple tools for analyzing and creating bit-stream files, including a tool that converts iCE40 bit-stream files into behavioral Verilog. Currently the bitstream format for iCE40 HX1K and HX8K is fully documented and supported by the tools.Arachne-PNR is an Open Source place&route tool for iCE40 FPGAs based on the databases provided by Project IceStorm. It converts BLIF files into an ASCII file format that can be turned into a bit-stream by IceStorm tools.This three projects together implement a complete open source tool-chain for iCE40 FPGAs. It is available now and it is feature complete (with the exception of timing analysis, which is work in progress). Speaker: Clifford EventID: 7139 Event: 32th Chaos Communication Congress [32c3] of the Chaos Computer Club [CCC] Location: Congress Centrum Hamburg (CCH); Am Dammtor; Marseiller Stra e; 20355 Hamburg; Germany Language: english Begin: Sun, 12/27/2015 16:00:00 +01:00 License: CC-byHelp us caption & translate this video!http://amara.org/v/HbCf/

cheers,

drew

http://twitter.com/pdp7

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diablero over 9 years ago

A complete open-source tool-chain of iCE40 FPGAs from Lattice? I'll look at this talk, it sounds interesting. Although Lattice is neither Xilinx or Altera.
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johnbeetem over 9 years ago in reply to diablero

Viorel Bianu wrote:

A complete open-source tool-chain of iCE40 FPGAs from Lattice? I'll look at this talk, it sounds interesting. Although Lattice is neither Xilinx or Altera.
The IceStorm tool chain is for the Lattice iCE40, but is not from Lattice itself. The tools were produced independently. The iCE40 is a fairly small FPGA, but it's a nice, clean architecture and a great way to learn about FPGAs before climbing the steep learning curves of Xilinx/Altera and their tools. These days Xilinx and Altera concentrate on large expensive FPGAs with high profit margins and have left a nice opportunity for Lattice for small cheap FPGAs.

Here's a couple of discussions about IceStorm and iCE40 that might be useful:
Project IceStorm: fully open-source FPGA tools for Lattice iCE40
Nandland Go Board Kickstarter
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diablero over 9 years ago

Thanks for the informations, John. I figured that, I follow somewhat Xilinx and Altera and what they do. The simple fact that the beginners can learn the iCE40 Lattice family FPGA using this tool-chain is quite gratifying. I am also interested to learn.
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