silky / icestorm-server

IceStorm Synthesis Server (Node.js) and Command-Line Client (Python)

icestorm-server

This is a fully open-source and self-hosted implementation of the WebFPGA interface and synthesis flow. The FPGA bitstream is generated on a remote server and returned to the client.

For more information about WebFPGA, check out https://webfpga.io.

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Command-line Client

The command-line client is written in Python and transmits Verilog source files and an optional pinmap.pcf file to the backend. The backend responds with real-time logs and the final, compressed bitstream.

By default, it is configured to send jobs to ws://icestorm.webfpga.io:2019. You can change that by modifying the SERVER= string in synthesis.py.

$ cd client
$ pip install websocket-client
$ ./synthesis.py fpga_top blinky.v pinmap.pcf
$ webfpga flash bitstream.bin

Server

The server is written in Node.js and is a WebSocket wrapper around a Makefile that runs the IceStorm flow.

To get started, make sure you have IceStorm installed. (This includes yosys, etc...)

$ cd server
$ npm install
$ node app.js

Docker

Or... you can host icestorm-server via Docker. This is by far the easiest method to up and running. For example, if you are running MacOS, all you need is Python and Docker to get started with the WebFPGA Standalone Board. (That is, if you want to go the fully open-source and self-hosted route. Remember, you can always navigate to the official Web IDE (https://beta.webfpga.io) to get started without any install or software dependencies.)

$ docker run -it --rm -p 2019:2019 webfpga/icestorm-server:latest