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I got a couple of ICESticks I've been meaning to play with a little while ago, they're only $25 MSRP and have a 'USB stick' form factor. But it's hard to find

I got a couple of ICESticks I've been meaning to play with a little while ago, they're only $25 MSRP and have a 'USB stick' form factor. But it's hard to find and get started with a good open source toolchain. I have heard good things about IceStorm, but haven't gotten around to setting it up. It's great and inspiring to see people successfully stepping through these sorts of starter projects and documenting them, though!

gh02t 9y ago
> But it's hard to find and get started with a good open source toolchain That's because there aren't any. The one you have happens to be the exception - it's the only FPGA line with an open source toolchain AFAIK. FPGAs are the realm of large, heavily proprietary build environments.
- MisterTea 9y ago
  > That's because there aren't any. Incorrect. See: http://www.clifford.at/icestorm/ http://www.clifford.at/icestorm/
  - gh02t 9y ago
    I meant to explicitly say that the Lattice iCE40 is the one exception thanks to a heroic volunteer effort. I edited a bit to make that clearer.
- Crisco 9y ago
  I was complaining about that the other day. I'm a pretty big fan and proponent of the Libre software movement and have recently decided I want to help with an open hardware movement because it is almost impossible to do any serious work with FPGAs using only FOSS. Does anyone know of any good places to start and help?
  - gh02t 9y ago
    The Lattice boards mentioned above are a good start. Really they're your only choice since they're the only open source toolchain, but the iCEStick is a pretty good place to start. It's a decent FPGA in a USB stick form factor and it's self contained so you don't need an external programmer. At $25 it won't break the bank. If you meant more how to get involved with the community effort, I'd start with Clifford Wolf's page (http://www.clifford.at/icestorm/ http://www.clifford.at/icestorm/ ). He's the main guy behind the efforts with the iCE40 toolchain and his page links to some other efforts to reverse engineer Xilinx and Altera chips. There's a lot of interest in more open FPGAs, but I think there's a lack of skilled people so you'd likely be welcome.
TomVDB 9y ago
You really should try IceStorm. I've been using it for the past month. It works extremely well and it's fast.

gh02t 9y ago

> But it's hard to find and get started with a good open source toolchain That's because there aren't any. The one you have happens to be the exception - it's the only FPGA line with an open source toolchain AFAIK. FPGAs are the realm of large, heavily proprietary build environments.

MisterTea 9y ago
> That's because there aren't any. Incorrect. See: http://www.clifford.at/icestorm/ http://www.clifford.at/icestorm/
- gh02t 9y ago
  I meant to explicitly say that the Lattice iCE40 is the one exception thanks to a heroic volunteer effort. I edited a bit to make that clearer.
Crisco 9y ago
I was complaining about that the other day. I'm a pretty big fan and proponent of the Libre software movement and have recently decided I want to help with an open hardware movement because it is almost impossible to do any serious work with FPGAs using only FOSS. Does anyone know of any good places to start and help?
- gh02t 9y ago
  The Lattice boards mentioned above are a good start. Really they're your only choice since they're the only open source toolchain, but the iCEStick is a pretty good place to start. It's a decent FPGA in a USB stick form factor and it's self contained so you don't need an external programmer. At $25 it won't break the bank. If you meant more how to get involved with the community effort, I'd start with Clifford Wolf's page (http://www.clifford.at/icestorm/ http://www.clifford.at/icestorm/ ). He's the main guy behind the efforts with the iCE40 toolchain and his page links to some other efforts to reverse engineer Xilinx and Altera chips. There's a lot of interest in more open FPGAs, but I think there's a lack of skilled people so you'd likely be welcome.

TomVDB 9y ago

You really should try IceStorm. I've been using it for the past month. It works extremely well and it's fast.