Zero ASIC releases Wildebeest, the highest performance FPGA synthesis tool
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Re: Zero ASIC releases Wildebeest, the highest performance FPGA synthesis tool
#2The best part of open-source synthesis tools is that they don't require absurdly bloated development environments. The only thing I've encountered that's worse is Android Studio.
Getting more efficient output is a nice bonus.
Re: Zero ASIC releases Wildebeest, the highest performance FPGA synthesis tool
#3The best part of open-source synthesis tools is that they don't require absurdly bloated development environments. The only thing I've encountered that's worse is Android Studio. Getting more efficient output is a nice bonus.
Most FPGA vendor tools can be used from the console. But they are very fat.
Re: Zero ASIC releases Wildebeest, the highest performance FPGA synthesis tool
#4The best part of open-source synthesis tools is that they don't require absurdly bloated development environments. The only thing I've encountered that's worse is Android Studio. Getting more efficient output is a nice bonus.
Most FPGA vendor tools can be used from the console. But they are very fat.
I know of a few vendor tools whose application size is measured in the multi-hundred of GBs
Re: Zero ASIC releases Wildebeest, the highest performance FPGA synthesis tool
#5Re: Zero ASIC releases Wildebeest, the highest performance FPGA synthesis tool
#6I don't understand the table under Benchmark Results. To compare the quality of two toolchains, the device architecture needs to be the same. "LUT6" vs "LUT4" doesn't cut it, there's much, much more to the architecture of an FPGA than the width of its look-up tables [1], and even for the "LUT6" category, I see four different devices.
[1] Consequently, there's more to FPGA synthesis than LUT mapping, so take the reported results with a huge grain of salt.
Re: Zero ASIC releases Wildebeest, the highest performance FPGA synthesis tool
#7I don't understand the table under Benchmark Results . To compare the quality of two toolchains, the device architecture needs to be the same. "LUT6" vs "LUT4" doesn't cut it, there's much, much more to the architecture of an FPGA than the width of its look-up tables [1], and even for the "LUT6" category, I see four different devices. [1] Consequently, there's more to FPGA synthesis than LUT mapping, so take the repo…
They seem to be making their own eFPGA architecture, so there's no vendor tool to compare against for their primary purpose.
The closest you'll get is xc7 (Xilinx) vs vendor, one of which is surely Xilinx 7. But the Yosys xc7 support is limited and not the best supported, so it's not a great comparison either.
Re: Zero ASIC releases Wildebeest, the highest performance FPGA synthesis tool
#8The best part of open-source synthesis tools is that they don't require absurdly bloated development environments. The only thing I've encountered that's worse is Android Studio. Getting more efficient output is a nice bonus.
> ... don't require absurdly bloated development environments.
Outside hobbies, I've been mostly away from this field for little over a decade by now. Is it still that bad? I remember back then, every single professional electronics engineer that I met had this die hard belief that this was simply how things work:
You want to use DerpSemi micro controllers? You must install DerpStudio '98! Not the later 2005 version tough, that has some major UI bugs. You want to program a HerpSoft PLC? You need EasyHerpes IDE! What, command line toolchain? Text editor? You must be completely insane!
It's been somewhat of a personal fight against windmills for me back then. That, plus suggesting that we are actually developing software and the C/Assembly/VHDL maybe shouldn't be an undocumented, tested-only-once pile of spaghetti based off a circuit diagram inside one guys head (and no, a 50 line comment block with a German transcription of the code below is not documentation).
Re: Zero ASIC releases Wildebeest, the highest performance FPGA synthesis tool
#9[dead]
Re: Zero ASIC releases Wildebeest, the highest performance FPGA synthesis tool
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most FPGA vendor tools can be used from the console. But they are very fat.
I know of a few vendor tools whose application size is measured in the multi-hundred of GBs
How does that happen?
When I see this, I suspect the vendor is operating under conditions that approach absolute chaos: dumping whatever junk someone imagines might be necessary into the stack with zero resistance, for years on end. Zero effort spent on any factoring that might threaten redundancy.