Introduction

This repository is a result of my wanting to learn HDL languages and digital hardware design. This repo hosts hardware implementations deployed on the Lattice FPGAs -

1. hx1k based iCEStick
2. hx8k based Alchitry-Cu

The choice of FPGAs is primarily based on the availability of the open-source toolchain. Examples include -

Example	Path	FPGA
Blinky	iCEStick-hx1k/blinky	hx1k
Logic Gates	iCEStick-hx1k/gates	hx1k
Multiplexer	iCEStick-hx1k/mux	hx1k
Uart	iCEStick-hx1k/uart	hx1k
Blinky	alchitry-Cu-hx8k/blinky	hx8k
7 Segment Display	alchitry-Cu-hx8k/7seg	hx8k

Setup

I've tested the following command on Ubuntu and Mac. The toolchain used consists of -

1. Yosys: To convert the Verilog/System Verilog to Netlist.
2. Arachne-pnr: Convert the Netlist to the FPGA-specific place and route.
3. Icestorm tools: Converting between file formats and upload the binary to the FPGA.

Use the following commands to install the toolchain -

Linux

sudo apt install build-essential clang bison flex libreadline-dev \
                     gawk tcl-dev libffi-dev git mercurial graphviz \
                     xdot pkg-config python3 libftdi-dev

Mac

brew install bison flex gawk graphviz xdot pkg-config python3

Linux/Mac

Icestorm Tools

git clone https://github.com/cliffordwolf/icestorm.git icestorm
cd icestorm
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install

Arachne-pnr

git clone https://github.com/cseed/arachne-pnr.git arachne-pnr
cd arachne-pnr
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install

Yosys

git clone https://github.com/cliffordwolf/yosys.git yosys
cd yosys
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install

Building

For each of the examples, from the location of the example, you can execute the following commands to compile the Verilog and upload it to the board.

Compiling

cd into the directory of the hardware that you want to build and simple execute make. This should then generate the *.bin file along with other helper files.

make

Uploading

To flash the *.bin file to the board there is a prog target in the Makefile for each hardware/project.

sudo make prog

Cleaning

To clean the repo and clear all generated files, from within the hardware/project directory execute.

make clean

Referrences

I have been using the following resources to create these projects.

• Project IceStorm
  • Author: Claire Wolf and Mathias Lasser
  • Title: Project IceStorm
  • hopublished: http://bygone.clairexen.net/icestorm/
• NandLand
• spinal-alchitry-cu
  • Alchitry-IO pin names