Video: "Yosys and nextpnr - open source FPGA update"

Topics FPGA
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Hey,

You all probably already know @daveshah, who is the maintainer of nextpnr and one of the core developers of the open-source FPGA tool ecosystem.

Yesterday @daveshah presented an update about the the progress made, the current status and his plans for the open source FPGA tools.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiCQzQsLFqA

It is really worth watching in my opinion.

I have to say it is very exciting how the open-tools are evolving to become more flexible with good APIs to interact with. I think this will become their biggest advantage, the ability to interact with a variety of extensions and the ability to integrate them tools into other software stacks.

Let me know what you find most interesting. :slight_smile:

Cheers,
Piotr

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A really interesting look under the covers of nextpnr, the speed of improvement of the FOSS tools is amazing.

I really wish I had time out of some very busy days to dig into FPGA designs, thanks Piotr for your work promoting the tools and bringing some nice hardware to the community. :slight_smile:

1 Like
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Especially if the API is python based :wink:

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Yeah totally! This definitely lowers the bar to entry using a popular scripting language like Python rather than the industry standard TCL. As far as I understand TCL is still supported, for backwards compatibility and interoperability with existing designs and infrastructure but it is not as capable as the Python API, and “not recommended for new designs” :wink: