Getting Started¶
This section provides an introduction on how to get started with using the SymbiFlow toolchain. In order to generate a bitstream (or any intermediate file format), you can use one of the toolchain tests. Following steps describe the whole process:
Clone repository¶
git clone https://github.com/SymbiFlow/symbiflow-arch-defs.git
Prepare environment¶
Download all needed packages and databases content into the separated environment
cd symbiflow-arch-defs
make env
Build example¶
Enter the appropriate test build directory, depending on your target architecture and invoke the appropriate make target.
Build directories depend on the architecture. Because of that, depending on the chosen target, a different toolchain backend will be used. (See Project X-Ray and Project Trellis for more information)
Moreover, it is worth to note that target names have the form <testname_platform_outputformat>.
Assuming that you would like to generate bitstream .bit file with
the counter example for the arty board, which uses Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA,
you will type:
cd build/xc/xc7/tests/counter
make counter_arty_bit
Load bitstream¶
The last step is to load the bitstream to your platform.
The final output file can be found in the appropriate test directory, i.e:
build/xc/xc7/tests/counter/counter_arty/artix7-xc7a50t-arty-swbut-roi-virt-xc7a50t-arty-swbut-test/top.bit
The loading proces may be different for every vendor. For convenience a target is provided for this purpose, e.g.:
make counter_arty_prog
However, this can be done with any tool of your choice, such as Vivado or xc3sprog.
Vivado¶
For programming the Arty Board with Vivado, open the program in GUI mode
and choose the Open Target option from
Flow Navigator \ Program and Debug \ Open Hardware Manager. After
right-clicking on the chip icon in the newly-opened Hardware window,
you will see the Program Device option in the context menu.
The option will open an appropriate Manager for programming the chip.
Select the location of the bitstream file and click Program.