apio VS f4pga-arch-defs

apio is a python package you drive from the command line. I didn't know somebody had done an integration with Atom. I've installed and used apio on my phone. I wouldn't really recommend doing that, but it shows what's possible.

I've had good experiences using Upduino 3.0 and 3.1 [0] with the IceStorm tools via apio [1]. I wrote a blog post [2] with some info on getting things set up via Linux. All you need is the Upduino board, which interfaces to your host system via USB (so no special programmer is needed).

[0] https://tinyvision.ai/products/upduino-v3-1

[1] https://github.com/FPGAwars/apio

[2] https://daveho.github.io/2021/02/07/upduino3-getting-started...

if you're more comfortable with the CLI, you should take a look at the apio project (https://github.com/FPGAwars/apio). It neatly bundles all the required tools. Regarding HDLs, I'm still learning so can't offer any good advice on that.

QuickLogic [1] seems to support and target the open tool environment for their devices -especially the F4PGA [2] toolkit (known earlier as symbiflow). Others have mentioned Lattice FPGAs. But the impression I got from Lattice is that they like the development of open tools, but don't want to invest too much in it. QuickLogic on the other hand, contribute code and design directly to F4PGA project and allied ones like Migen.

[1]: https://www.quicklogic.com/software/qorc-mcu-efpga-fpga-open...

[2]: https://f4pga.org/

I note that F4PGA (formerly SymbiFlow) Project X-Ray folks are documenting Xilinx FPGAs, hopefully you will be able to replace your use of Vivado at some point:

https://f4pga.org/

FPGAs would be so much more useful if AMD(Xilinx)/Intel(Altera) just gave up trying to build there own tools and instead supported F4FPGA: https://f4pga.org

Have you looked at F4PGA? They are working on exactly that.

https://f4pga.org/

F4PGA In the world of FPGA tools, it is refreshing to be able to use the suite of open source tools provided by F4PGA. For now, it supports only Xilinx 7-Series, Lattice iCE40, Lattice ECP5 FPGAs and QuickLogic EOS S3 but the team behind the projet is working to support more targets.

F4PGA: Open FPGA Tooling: Xilinx 7-Series, Lattice iCE40/ECP5, QuickLogic EOS S3\ (19 comments)

In addition to open-source FPGA toolchains (e.g., https://f4pga.org/, GHDL, Verilator, Yosys, IceStudio, etc.), you _can_ actually run vendor/commercial tools (e.g., AMD/Xilinx Vivado) on M1/M2 macs, through virtualization (VM, or containers). Until quite recently, the only available option to run x86_64 on macOS/arm64 was QEMU (e.g., UTM, docker, lima). It worked but was pretty slow, especially for mammoths like Vivado, larger designs, and in case you needed the GUI. With the release of Ventura (currently at final betas), it’s possible to run Linux x86 binaries using rosetta 2, which is way faster than QEMU. I currently run Vivado 2022.1 on macOS/M1 Ventura, using UTM (https://mac.getutm.app/). It’s 100% usable and feels even faster and snappier than my Linux machine!

There are some FPGAs that have been _fully_ reverse engineered and now have open source toolchains, such as Lattice iCE40 and Lattice ECP5(-5G). Others are coming along, such as Xilinx 7 series and Lattice's Nexus FPGAs (CrossLink and Certus products).

See: https://f4pga.org/

As far as boards go, there are many, many out there. Some of my favorites are:

Alchitry Au: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/16527

Olimex iCE40HX8K-EVN: https://www.olimex.com/Products/FPGA/iCE40/iCE40HX8K-EVB/ope...

ECP5-5G evaluation kit: https://www.latticesemi.com/products/developmentboardsandkit...