Introduction
 fpgatools is a toolchain to program flexible programmable gate arrays
 (FPGAs). The only supported chip at this time is the xc6slx9, a cheap
 (ca. 10 USD) but powerful 45nm-generation chip with about 2400 LUTs,
 block ram and multiply-accumulate devices.
 The principles of fpgatools are:

 *) reach the maximum physical performance of the chip
 *) fast development cycles
 *) independent toolchain that only depends on other free software
 *) bootstrap on chip, i.e. program the fpga from a softcore running
    on the same fpga
 *) complete package including all tools to get started such as jtag,
    debugging, parts data and designs for prototyping hardware
 *) work towards a design flow that includes later manufacturing
    in different ASIC processes, include information about ASIC
    processes, libraries, GDS generation, etc.
 *) lightweight C implementation without GUI
 *) supported platform: Linux
 *) license: public domain

FAQ
 todo

Libraries

- libfpga-cores      reusable cores
- libfpga-stdlib     standard design elements on top of libfpga-control
- libfpga-control    programmatic access to libfpga-model
- libfpga-model      memory-only representation of an FPGA
- libfpga-floorplan  reads and writes .fp floorplan files
- libfpga-bit        reads and writes .bit bitstream files

Design Utilities

- hello_world        outputs an AND gate floorplan to stdout
- new_fp             creates empty .fp floorplan file
- fp2bit             converts .fp floorplan into .bit bitstream
- bit2fp             converts .bit bitstream into .fp floorplan
- draw_svg_tiles     draws a simple .svg showing tile types

fpgatools Development Utilities

- autotest           executes test suite
- sort_seq           sorts line-based text file by sequence numbers in strings
- merge_seq          merges a pre-sorted text file into wire sequences
- pair2net           reads the first two words per line and builds nets
- hstrrep            high-speed hashed array based search and replace util

Design Principles

- small independent command line utilities, no GUI
- plain C, no C++
- simple Makefiles
- text-based file formats
- automatic test suite
- public domain software

TODO

short-term (1 month):
* support counter sample (including clock, jtag)
* support reading iologic switches
* autotest: fix roundtrip issues in routing_sw test
* autotest: automate generation of gold standards
* autotest: protect stderr of diff executable in autotest log
* autotest: cleanup extensions and switch to new extension system
* autotest: include samples such as hello_world in testing
* 3 Debian packages: libfpga, libfpga-doc, fpgatools

mid-term (6 months):
* support chips other than xc6slx9, maybe an ftg256 or fgg484-packaged
  xc6 or the xc7a100
* more cases in switches (98% done) and inter-tile connections (15% done)
* more cases in logic block configuration
* configuration of bram and macc blocks, bram initialization data
* write standard design elements for libfpga-stdlib library
* several places might benefit from a bison parser:
  - switchbox description into bit parser/generator (bit_frames.c)
  - inter-tile wire connections (model_conns.c)
  - configure devices and route wires

long-term (>6 months):
* auto-crc calculation in .bit file
* support lm32 or openrisc core, either via libfpga or iverilog backend
* ipv6 or vnc in hardware?
* iverilog fpga backend

ChangeLog

2012-09-24
* First design verified: hello_world is an unclocked AND gate design
  which was verified in a xc6slx9.

2012-08-20
* Beginning of full fidelity circle with model, floorplan, conversion
  between floorplan and binary configuration formats.

2012-06-03
* Project started.