silkflow's Introduction

Silkflow ALPHA

A saner, python-based utility for working with Symbiflow scripts, binaries and architecture definitions.

Requirements

GNU/Linux - A number of the dependent conda packages don't support macOS and none of them support Microsoft Windows.
Miniconda - https://docs.conda.io/en/latest/miniconda.html < This requires like 10 GB free space
Pixz - https://github.com/vasi/pixz
- Note that Pixz requires quite a bit of RAM to extract even moderately sized archives. You can't get by with a 2 GB Docker VM for example.

Installation & Usage

Ensure that conda and pixz are set up and in PATH. Make sure conda is also initialized: type bash -c "conda init" just to be sure.

First, install silkflow:

python3 -m pip install git+https://github.com/efabless/silkflow

First, get a silkflow-compatible .tar.pixz file: you can find some at https://github.com/donn/symbiflow-arch-def-artifacts/releases.

Please note that ice40 is broken upstream- silkflow will attempt to integrate a nextpnr replacement shortly, stay tuned.

Then, set up the environment using this command:

silkflow --install-dir ~/symbiflow --family <name-of-family> /path/to/<name-of-family>.tar.pixz
# Where name of family is the name of the FPGA family in use, example: ice40, xc7, etc…

Next, go get a coffee. Seriously. This takes like 10 minutes.

After that you can type bash --rcfile ~/symbiflow/<name-of-family>/.rc to open a shell with the necessary environment variables.

Then you can invoke silkflow's other subcommands: type silkflow --help for help.