Simple tests show the tools work under WSL 2, but there are two issues to be aware of:
I have added some testing for IceStorm, nextpnr, and Yosys under WSL 2 in Windows 10 update 2004. I have added a new page covering Building iCE40 FPGA Toolchain on Linux. Get in touch: GitHub Issues, 1BitSquared Discord, (Mastodon), (Twitter)
This can be done with software such as VirtualBox and Parallels. Since macOS is not one of the supported operating systems for installing Vivado and Vitis, a virtual machine is needed for hosting a supported OS. We’ll setup an example environment for the Zynq 7Z007S on an Avnet MiniZed development board to show you how we do it – and hopefully speed up your own development in the process! Create a Virtual Machine At DojoFive we’re mostly a Mac shop, but Xilinx prefers to run on Ubuntu 18.04.4.
With Vitis, the developer can debug their application code together with the hardware designs created with Vivado.ĭue to this enormous complexity, the toolset requires a fairly specific environment to run in. Vitis IDE, on the other hand, is an embedded software development platform targeted towards Xilinx embedded processors. Verilog and VHDL are the two most popular HDLs, and they are used with FPGAs to design for the configurable portion of the silicon. Vivado Design Suite is a platform for synthesis and analysis of hardware description language (HDL) designs – the FPGA portion of the device. The Unified Installer contains both Vivado and Vitis. The Xilinx Unified Installer for 2020.1 tools is over 35 GB!!! Yikes! The FPGA fabric connects to the hardcore to allow an infinite number of configuration options. The hard core is a traditional CPU, fixed in the silicon. Additionally, most FPGAs these days contain a “hard core” and configurable logic. Imagine the complexity that goes into compilers – and then imagine configuring asynchronous logic in silicon across millions of configuration settings – and you’ll understand how complex these tools need to be to enable development. With this complexity comes a huge amount of complexity in the toolset.
I think we’re just getting started with understanding how to apply FPGAs to real-world problems. You can literally build hardware accelerators, meet hard real-time deadlines in silicon, make changes to the FPGA logic in the field with OTA updates, and many more applications. If you haven’t used an FPGA-based platform before, it is amazing what you can do with these devices. Xilinx makes a number of great products that we have worked with in the past.