Over the last couple of years the maker movement has seen a significant growth in interest in FPGA development, with a great deal of activity being focused around the Lattice iCE40 platform, thanks in no small part to the availability of a fully open source FPGA toolchain to use with it. Of course, there are many benefits to open toolchains and opportunities exist all the way from learning environments, right up to use in advanced platforms that can be reconfigured more easily and often.
In this episode of Open Source Digital Design Insights we got to speak with Clifford Wolf, the author of groundbreaking synthesis tool, Yosys, on its origins, how many regarded creating a fully open source FPGA toolchain to be an impossible task, and how he now delights in turning engineers who doubt the viability of such toolchains into engineers who say that they could do better.
Andrew Back has in excess of 20 years industry experience that spans IT infrastructure, telecommunications and electronics, and covering R&D through to architecture, strategy and governance.