Educational FPGA platform with open-source toolchains
FPGAs are powerful devices, but the complex proprietary toolchains and expensive development boards make it difficult for students and amateurs to enter the world of digital design.
Now, the newly emerged open-source toolchains, especially OpenXC7 for AMD/Xilinx 7-Series FPGAs, with an enlarging number of open-source IP cores, are bringing a new dimension of freedom to FPGA development. A free online compiling service with API access is developed to use these open-source toolchains without local software installation.
Moreover, FPGAOL, an online educational FPGA cluster service created by the University of Science and Technology of China, makes real Artix 7 FPGA boards available to everyone with internet access. Together, a zero-bar, zero-cost FPGA ecosystem is being created.