fusesoc VS chisel

Check out https://github.com/olofk/fusesoc. It gives you a command line build flow that can drive Vivado (along with many other eda tools via edalize https://github.com/olofk/edalize) without having to touch the GUI (though you might want it for programming the board, though FuseSoC can do that too).

Check out FuseSoC: https://github.com/olofk/fusesoc it can run Vivado builds for you (as well as many other tools). It may be less work to get FuseSoC setup then work out a CLI Vivado batch flow from scratch.

Also, the FuseSOC and LiteX projects both support the DE10 nano, and can be used to roll your own custom SOCs with RISC-V or OpenRISC cores.

Integration with the dependency and build tool I use (FuseSoc) is clumsy.

The "fusesoc" project may be of interest to you.

FuseSoC is an RTL package manager. It will automatically download the latest versions of required components when you build. It also comes with a bunch of great options for components here:

Have to correct this slightly: I just heard of my first HDL package manager in this thread. FuseSOC: https://github.com/olofk/fusesoc - Thanks u/gac_cag!

My first instinct was to ask "Does this play well with CIRCT?" And thankfully they answer that right away in the README.

I'm personally of the opinion that there is a LOT of room for improvement in the hardware design tooling space, but a combination of market consolidation, huge pressure to meet deadlines, and an existing functional pipeline of Verilog/VHDL talent is preventing changes.

That's not to say "Verilog/VHDL are bad", because clearly they've been good enough to support nearly all of the wonderful designs powering today's devices. But it is to say, "the startup scene for hardware will continue to look anemic compared to the SaaS scene until someone gives me all of the niceties I have for building SaaS tools in software."

A huge amount of ideas (and entire designs) start off as software sims, which enables kernel/compiler engineers to start building out support for new hardware before it's manufactured.

There is some interesting work going on at SiFive building hardware with Chisel[1], as well as some interesting work lead by a professor at William and Mary to improve simulations[2].

1: https://www.chisel-lang.org

2: https://github.com/sarchlab/akita

Inspired by Scala. Which can do a whole lot more, and worse. The currently biggest competitor to decades old hardware description languages is a Scala DSL.

Already mentioned Chisel: https://www.chisel-lang.org/

I'm also a hobbyist. There are a number of alternative HDLs out there, and as hobbyists we can deviate more from the mainstream of (System)Verilog and VHDL if we desire, though you'll still need to be able to read them. In the past I've done Verilog, but lately I've been using SpinalHDL and have been really enjoying it. Its close relative Chisel also makes appearances in the RISC-V space.

What are your thoughts on other HDLs like Chisel or BlueSpec when it comes to better type checking?

I started playing with FPGAs and HDLs a couple years ago with no hardware design background (I'm mostly a software architect/engineer) and in the end found that a "higher-level" HDL suited me better.

I chose Chisel (https://www.chisel-lang.org/) an HDL based on Scala (technically a Scala DSL) which can provide many facilities to hardware generation.

I'd highly advise looking into it although also knowing Verilog helps a lot.

But some go further and ask "what if when we add a soldering station on top of it?"

In recent years Chisel HDL, RISC V, and SiFive came out of their architecture group, to name a few.