FPGA Development Opens Up

By Steve Leibson, EETimes (December 14, 2021)

An open approach to FPGA development is emerging as promoters seek to foster an open-source ecosystem of development tools that will extend the technology.

Pierre-Emmanuel Gaillardon of the Open Source FPGA Foundation noted during an event co-located with this year’s Design Automation Conference that multiple projects are already underway. Key challenges include open development of core FPGA fabrics, along with accessible tooling and design flows.

Aspiring entrants to the FPGA market will be shut out without these advances, Gaillardon asserted.

Available open-source tools include logic synthesis, floor planning, place-and-route, static timing analysis and JTAG-based debugging tools. Still needed is a tailored FPGA design interface. Gaillardon said the list of FPGA development tools remains long and largely unaddressed, including a TcL interpreter and compiler wrapper.

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