Open FPGA Toolchains at 35c3
Piotr Esden-Tempski, Clifford Wolf of Yosys/NextPNR, and Dave Shah discuss the state of open FPGA toolchains at 35c3, highlighting the release of NextPNR and support for Lattice ECP5. They detail the Icebreaker and ULX3S development boards, explaining how open-source tools enable complex designs like RISC-V soft cores and low-latency video processing that were previously difficult or impossible. The speakers emphasize the advantages of open toolchains, including automation, cross-platform compatibility, and the ability to build commercial products without vendor lock-in.