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    headkaze
    @headkaze
    Okay Thomas thanks for your help on this
    Thomas Hornschuh
    @ThomasHornschuh
    I have written some commetns on your install.md per mail, it was a bit long for gitter
    headkaze
    @headkaze
    Thanks Thomas I'll try to go through it today
    headkaze
    @headkaze
    I'm just going through and changing a few things like making the GCC RISCV toolchain cross-compile
    I also think we should include the instructions to disable flow control for minicom
    Otherwise you get no response from the monitor and it feels like it has failed when it hasn't
    Thomas Hornschuh
    @ThomasHornschuh

    I also think we should include the instructions to disable flow control for minicom

    Maybe we can deliver a minicom configuration file as described here https://cris.bytesnblades.net/2009/03/24/managing-minicom-settings/

    Describing the interactive flow to change this settings will increase the length of the quick setup guide a lot
    Unfortunately there is no command line option to switch of flow control
    headkaze
    @headkaze
    minicom_flowcontrol.png
    The flow control is the only config change you need to get output
    Even if it's mentioned that both settings need turning off
    One other thing I noticed is whenever you refer to a key you write it as <return>
    headkaze
    @headkaze
    For some reason this means it does not display
    Thomas Hornschuh
    @ThomasHornschuh
    Newer versions of minicom default to Alt as meta key instead of ctrl-a. In older you can use the option -m to switch to alt. In addition the it may be good to save the settings after changing
    Thomas Hornschuh
    @ThomasHornschuh

    One other thing I noticed is whenever you refer to a key you write it as <return>

    Sorry, I don’t understand what you are mean

    headkaze
    @headkaze
    If you search the install.md file for <return> you will see it doesn't display in the parsed version
    headkaze
    @headkaze
    Have you checked out the iCEBreaker board? I just ordered one. It has a couple of Pmod connectors and a totally open source toolchain
    headkaze
    @headkaze
    They did have a Gitter channel but have since moved to Discord https://discord.gg/sC54vsA
    They have a very active community and I think it would be great to have bonfire support for this FPGA board
    headkaze
    @headkaze
    The soft CPU they seem to be using is the Picorv32 https://github.com/cliffordwolf/picorv32/
    When my iCEBreaker arrives I think I might try porting your monitor app with Lua
    headkaze
    @headkaze
    What are your thoughts on the Picorv32?
    headkaze
    @headkaze
    The picorv32_wb version provides a Wishbone master interface
    Thomas Hornschuh
    @ThomasHornschuh

    What are your thoughts on the Picorv32?

    It is a very good design from a very smart guy. But is different from most other RISC-V cores: It is a multi-cycle and not a pipelined design. It reaches a high clock frequency, but has a small IPC (instructions per clock). For most uses case other cores are better then PicoRV32. I'm currently looking into VexRISCV (https://github.com/SpinalHDL/VexRiscv)

    Have you checked out the iCEBreaker board? I just ordered one. It has a couple of Pmod connectors and a totally open source toolchain

    I have looked into nearly all FPGA boards in the price range < 500 USD ...
    The Lattice ICE40 FPGAs are small and not very fast, so I'm not so much interested in them. I'm looking forward to this one: https://www.crowdsupply.com/radiona/ulx3s

    Thomas Hornschuh
    @ThomasHornschuh
    I have backed/ordered one of these, hope it will be delivered in time, despite Corona. The Lattice ECP5 series is roughly comparable with Spartan-6. So crowdsupply campaing reached their funding target after a fews days, never seen this before. It has a very active community already, even if only pre-prodcution boards have been delivered. It can also use the Yosys based open-source toolchain. A lot of retro computing designs are already ported to it, also some former Papilio Pro designs. Please note that the Open Source toolchain only supports Verilog currently. There is experimental VHDL support with ghdl-synth beta, but it has a lot of rough edges. I have not tested it, but what I read from others, I'm quite sure that it will not build Bonfire at the moment. You can use still use Lattice Diamond, the proprietary vendor chain for VHDL designs
    headkaze
    @headkaze
    Thanks again for your advice. I think I will order a ulx3s
    headkaze
    @headkaze
    Just found this today https://github.com/SonalPinto/kronos
    headkaze
    @headkaze
    I've been speaking to the creator on Discord
    You should come onto Discord there are a lot of FPGA developers on there
    headkaze
    @headkaze
    I ended up buying a Papilio Pro as I think it's still a great board. Not easy to get anymore though.
    headkaze
    @headkaze
    Had to pay $100 for it
    But I got a bunch of accessories and wing boards for it on discount from the GadgetFactory store
    I'm really interested in trying out the RetroCade MegaWing
    SetpointCapybara
    @SetpointCapybara
    Hello Thomas
    Johnata here
    Tanks for your emaial response
    We had to choose the processor from a list of suggested processors made by the professor. Yours were one of the few open source ones, so we picked it.
    All classes have gone on line now, so I have no time restriction what so ever. I would like you to suggest the best time for you so we can chat for no more than an hour. Don't mind the time zone issue, that's no problem for me :)
    Thomas Hornschuh
    @ThomasHornschuh
    Hi Johnata, I think you are 5 hours behind Germany from time zone, I would suggest a meeting 1pm your time, this is 6pm for me, which is a good fit. We can make have a call either tommorow (Wednesday) or Friday. Please sent me an invitation per email for the day you prefer.
    Thomas Hornschuh
    @ThomasHornschuh
    Hi, Im in the google meeting
    Rocketmagnet
    @Rocketmagnet
    Hello everyone.
    2 replies
    I wonder if anyone can help me. I'm trying to get the picorv32 picosoc working on the IceFun FPGA board. So far, I have cloned the hx8kdemo code, and am modifying it to work on the IceFun board.
    What I can't work out, is how to change the package type for the Ice40 chip. Where in the code or the Makefile is the package specified as 'ct256' ?
    Thomas Hornschuh
    @ThomasHornschuh
    Sorry, you are in the wrong group. This is to support the Bonfire CPU, https://bonfirecpu.eu
    PicoRV32 is a complete different project, but you should find a support group for the IceFun board to ask board specific questions