Open Source FPGA Development with IceStudio
IceStudio has released a revolutionary new visual editor for open source FPGAs that is compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux.
When someone asks me what a good FPGA is for there very first designs (particularly first PCB layout designs with FPGAs), the Lattice Semiconductor iCE40 FPGAs are the first chip I recommend due their small, but efficient design as well as being one of the few open source FPGAs on the market.
This lead me to start following Project IceStorm, which is the movement for documenting the bitstream format of Lattice iCE40 FPGAs and providing simple tools for analyzing and creating bitstream files. While there is a fair amount of advanced projects for the open source iCE40 workflow, I was recently made aware of a very novice friendly addition to the landscape with IceStudio.
Available for Window, Linux, and Mac (both ARM and Intel based), IceStudio is a really great graphical FPGA tool for beginners and intermediate users alike. The vast host OS support is rare enough on its own, but the simplistic nature of the GUI that is akin to what made the Arduino GUI great for beginners is executed even better with IceStudio.
After installation, users simply select their target iCE40 FPGA development board then start dragging+dropping graphical blocks from the library and connecting them as desired before uploading to the FPGA. From download to working AND-gate demo on my TinyFPGA BX was about 5 minutes:
Supported by the FPGAwars community, IceStudio users will be able to find lots of support in a big and active community. More advanced users can also just write straight Verilog to the target FPGA if a feature/function can't be found in the graphical library.
Soft processor support is also available via the RISC-V IceStudio repository. I also found a few other neat/interesting demos in the IceStudio GitHub repository.
The majority of the popular iCE40 FPGA development boards are supported such as the TinyFPGA, Alhambra II, iceBreaker board, BlackIce, IceSugar, and so on.
Overall, it's exciting to see the open source FPGA world expand and these tools continue to develop to offer wider support for new FPGA users. IceStudio will definitely be my new recommendation for new FPGA developers.