openXC7 toolchain installer

This is an open source FPGA toolchain using yosys and nextpnr-xilinx for Xilinx 7 series FPGAs (Spartan7, Artix7, Zynq7), with added support for Kintex7 FPGAs (70T, 160T, 325T, 420T, 480T).

Recommended Installation Methods

Nix

The nix-based toolchain is the recommended option for Linux and macOS. It supports the full feature set, including the GHDL plugin in yosys for VHDL.

See: https://github.com/openXC7/toolchain-nix/

Apio

Apio is a lightweight, pip-installable CLI that wraps yosys, nextpnr, and the openXC7 database. It provides the simplest getting-started experience: no snap, no nix, no manual builds.

pip install apio
apio install system

See: https://github.com/FPGAwars/apio

Alternative: Build from Sources

The toolchain-sources-builder.sh script provides an alternative to Nix or Apio for users who prefer to build from source. It automates downloading, building, and installing the toolchain components into /opt/openxc7.

Objectives

The script handles the following tasks:

• cloning, updating and checking out yosys/nextpnr-xilinx/prjxray/prjxray-db repositories
• building each specified tool
• installing the resulting binaries into /opt/openxc7

Usage

The script can be executed with or without arguments:

• with no arguments or all: downloads, builds and installs all supported tools
• with specific tool names (yosys and/or nextpnr and/or prjxray) only the specified tools will be downloaded, built, and installed

Environment setup

After installation, the script generates a file at /opt/openxc7/export.sh, which can be sourced in your terminal to update the environment variables accordingly:

source /opt/openxc7/export.sh

This allows you to use the installed tools in your current shell session without manually modifying/adding:

• PATH
• PYTHONPATH
• NEXTPNR_XILINX_PYTHON_DIR
• PRJXRAY_DB_DIR