This weekend's agenda: learning Magit and contemplating whether to
buy an FPGA board.
Christopher Allan Webber likes this.
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The free software dev stack is nearly non-existent with FPGAs because device manufacturers keep information about how to program their parts to themselves. That sucks for freedom, and on a purely practical level, I think it has held back innovation in the tooling and applications of FPGAs. They keep talking about "reconfigurable" computing, but their own tools make that vision an impossibility. There are free tools higher up the stack (e.g. Verilog simulators etc.), but eventually you need to deal with the device manufacturer's tool to generate the bit files.
The closest I've heard for a free stack is the reverse engineering effort going into "Project IceStorm". I am thinking about investigating that more. I think there has also been some limited reverse engineering performed on some older Xilinx parts. However, if you are just starting out, it is probably better to start with something like the Papilio. Anyway, I'd be interested to hear what you learn if you decide to do it.
The closest I've heard for a free stack is the reverse engineering effort going into "Project IceStorm". I am thinking about investigating that more. I think there has also been some limited reverse engineering performed on some older Xilinx parts. However, if you are just starting out, it is probably better to start with something like the Papilio. Anyway, I'd be interested to hear what you learn if you decide to do it.
I'm clear that it's not a free tool stack at present, though I am
interested in learning which brand has the most-active community
making progress in that area (and which manufacturer scores the
highest on the ancillary issues like open specs / documentation /
lack-of-NDAs, etc.). In lieu of a free stack, putting more weight
behind the best option is one of the only moves you have.
[Same goes for smartcard programming, 802.15.4, V2X networks, and a few other niches, for lack of a better word]
[Same goes for smartcard programming, 802.15.4, V2X networks, and a few other niches, for lack of a better word]
But thank you for your info! In case it wasn't clear in my previous
comment, I greatly appreciate it.
Nathan Willis at 2015-05-22T14:30:24Z
Charles Stanhope likes this.
I promise not to pester you about these things, but since you are on the hunt, and I just came across this, I thought I would share: https://www.sparkfun.com/news/1837