Change default board to iCE40 based board #134
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SGTM! |
ewenmcneill
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May 16, 2019
Historically the default platform litex-buildenv was the "opsis" video board, because of the origins of litex-buildenv in the HDMI2USB project. However the opsis requires Xilinx tools installed, which require non-trivial manual steps. Ease the path for naive users by defaulting to a target that has all open source tooling, so that we can install all tools easily, and thus the user will either quickly reach a useful point, or quickly and painlessly reach a dead end and realise they should set some environment variables. . scripts/enter-env.sh -- gives "LX P=tinyfpga_bx.minimal F=micropython" export PLATFORM=opsis . scripts/enter-env.sh -- gives "LX P=opsis", as before (fixes timvideos#134)
mithro
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Jun 2, 2019
Historically the default platform litex-buildenv was the "opsis" video board, because of the origins of litex-buildenv in the HDMI2USB project. However the opsis requires Xilinx tools installed, which require non-trivial manual steps. Ease the path for naive users by defaulting to a target that has all open source tooling, so that we can install all tools easily, and thus the user will either quickly reach a useful point, or quickly and painlessly reach a dead end and realise they should set some environment variables. . scripts/enter-env.sh -- gives "LX P=tinyfpga_bx.minimal F=micropython" export PLATFORM=opsis . scripts/enter-env.sh -- gives "LX P=opsis", as before (fixes timvideos#134)
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Closing issue, because the underlying surprise (that prompted this on IRC) got fixed by having no default platform -- see #162. More detail in #138 (comment), #99 (comment), #99 (comment), #99 (comment), and #99 (comment). Ewen |
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Now that we have a build chain that is fully open source (iCE40), we should change the default build target to a board that is iCE40 based. Maybe TinyFPGA BX now, and iCEBreaker once those are out/supported?
The reasoning here is that getting started with a Xilinx based board requires several non trivial manual steps (installing Vivado, or ISE), which are completely unnecessary for the iCE40 based boards, but users that just start following the defaults can quickly end up in the weeds doing a lot of yak shaving (eg, https://twitter.com/femtoduino/status/1126750242768969728).
By making the default (a) something it's now more likely they're trying to use and (b) something that gets to a "would work if you had that board" quickly, it's more likely they'll either get things working, or quickly figure out they're heading in the wrong direction. (Currently it takes a lot of yak shaving to determine that installing lots of Xilinx things is the wrong direction.)
Capturing a suggestion that @mithro (https://twitter.com/mithro/status/1126988574547558400) and I (https://twitter.com/ewenmcneill/status/1126998432978165760) made independently on Twitter.
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