arXiv:2611.13008v1 Announce Type: cross
Abstract: The author describes an open implementation flow, from HDL to a programmable bitstream, for the Xilinx Spartan-3E (XC3S100E to XC3S1200E) and Spartan-6 (XC6SLX16, XC6SLX45), devices that only the discontinued ISE 14.7 supports. The flow runs unchanged in a web browser or in Node.js: Yosys and nextpnr compiled to WebAssembly, with nextpnr's Himbaechel framework given Spartan-3E and Spartan-6 architectures generated from Silinx's own device descriptions, bit database and timing model, and Silinx's own bitstream writer. The bit database was built by black-box observation of ISE's documented XDL and bitgen tools, using codeword-batched experiments; the router is given only switches whose bits were measured, and the writer refuses a feature it has not measured. ISE is the oracle: for the same placed and routed design, the bitstream is byte-identical to the one bitgen writes and ISE's DRC is clean. Placement and routing were first done by an in-house annealer and PathFinder router, which nextpnr replaced once it matched them. On 67 open-source designs for the XC3S1200E, compared with ISE at the same optimisation goal (45 designs built by both), the flow uses 15% fewer slices and has 14% shorter critical paths at goal Area, 21% fewer slices and 8% shorter paths at Speed, and 20% fewer slices but 12% longer paths at Fast (geometric means). XST cannot read 15 of the designs. The flow is published as the npm package silinx-fpga (Apache-2.0).
Abstract: The author describes an open implementation flow, from HDL to a programmable bitstream, for the Xilinx Spartan-3E (XC3S100E to XC3S1200E) and Spartan-6 (XC6SLX16, XC6SLX45), devices that only the discontinued ISE 14.7 supports. The flow runs unchanged in a web browser or in Node.js: Yosys and nextpnr compiled to WebAssembly, with nextpnr's Himbaechel framework given Spartan-3E and Spartan-6 architectures generated from Silinx's own device descriptions, bit database and timing model, and Silinx's own bitstream writer. The bit database was built by black-box observation of ISE's documented XDL and bitgen tools, using codeword-batched experiments; the router is given only switches whose bits were measured, and the writer refuses a feature it has not measured. ISE is the oracle: for the same placed and routed design, the bitstream is byte-identical to the one bitgen writes and ISE's DRC is clean. Placement and routing were first done by an in-house annealer and PathFinder router, which nextpnr replaced once it matched them. On 67 open-source designs for the XC3S1200E, compared with ISE at the same optimisation goal (45 designs built by both), the flow uses 15% fewer slices and has 14% shorter critical paths at goal Area, 21% fewer slices and 8% shorter paths at Speed, and 20% fewer slices but 12% longer paths at Fast (geometric means). XST cannot read 15 of the designs. The flow is published as the npm package silinx-fpga (Apache-2.0).
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