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| FPGA hardware supporting open source toolchains |
Posted by: nickpunt on 2020-11-20 14:51:23
Thought this overview of open-toolchain FPGA hardware might be of interest to hardware hackers looking to build new projects with FPGAs:
https://www.ktemkin.com/exploring-open-fpga-hardware/
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Posted by: quorten on 2020-11-26 12:38:41
So looks like the state-of-the-art in open-source FPGAs is still pretty much "Lattice only." Fortunately, looks like Lattice FPGAs might be good enough for implementing a replica BBU for the Macintosh SE. Good thing was that I was already looking at candidate FPGAs from Lattice.
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Posted by: aeberbach on 2020-11-26 16:52:51
I'm wondering why open source matters here; you won't get very far without buying the proprietary silicon from one of the big vendors, so what does it matter if you use the tools provided by them also?
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Posted by: paws on 2020-11-27 02:03:28
All the same reasons you use an open source compiler to generate machine code for a proprietary CPU: Out of principle, because it's more future proof, and frequently also because they're just better software.
I don't know about the Lattice tools, I've only used the open source ones, but the Xilinx tools are gigantic, slow, buggy, and the versions I used made you do a complete 7GB download for each tiny bug fix upgrade.
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Posted by: Kai Robinson on 2020-12-07 13:33:58
So looks like the state-of-the-art in open-source FPGAs is still pretty much "Lattice only." Fortunately, looks like Lattice FPGAs might be good enough for implementing a replica BBU for the Macintosh SE. Good thing was that I was already looking at candidate FPGAs from Lattice. The iCE40 perchance?
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Posted by: quorten on 2020-12-07 19:53:09
@Kai Robinson Yeah I believe I looked at that one. The other thing I was thinking was that a CPLD might also fit the bill, the advantage being voltage level shifters would not be required.
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