lfpga 0.2.0

A package manager for FPGA/HDL development: resolve, fetch and assemble IP cores from the LibFPGA registry.

lfpga

A package manager for FPGA/HDL development. Resolve, fetch and assemble open IP cores from the LibFPGA registry into a source list your simulator or synthesis tool can consume.

The registry is the pypi.org of FPGA IP: curated, ownership-claimed, and toolchain-verified. lfpga is the pip, and its superpower is that every package can carry an earned verification badge (lints clean, synthesizes, testbench passes).

$ lfpga init my-soc
$ lfpga add libfpga
Found libfpga: https://github.com/libfpga/libfpga
  license MIT · verilog · ✓ lint, synth, testbench, formal
$ lfpga add picorv32
$ lfpga install
  libfpga        a4ef4a3fa4ac  1 files  ✓ lint, synth, testbench, formal
  picorv32       e9c4c5b8...   1 files  unverified

Wrote lfpga.lock and build/sources.f (2 source files).

Then point your tool at the generated filelist:

$ verilator --lint-only -f build/sources.f
$ iverilog -o sim.vvp -f build/sources.f
# Vivado: read_verilog -f build/sources.f (via -f)

Why a package manager for FPGA is different

FPGA IP is source, not binaries: there is no ABI and no linking, so lfpga vendors declared HDL files and hands them to the tool of your choice. It does not replace your simulator or synthesizer; it produces the inputs they expect. See the design notes for the full rationale (name collisions, fuzzy versioning, filesets, vendor primitives).

Install

pip install lfpga        # Python 3.11+

Commands

Command	What it does
lfpga init [name]	Create a libfpga.yaml here
lfpga add <pkg>	Add a dependency (name, name@rev, or a git URL)
lfpga install	Resolve, pin (lfpga.lock), fetch, and write build/sources.f
lfpga list	Show the locked dependencies and their badges
lfpga sources [--format verilator]	Emit the assembled source list

The manifest (libfpga.yaml)

One file, like Cargo.toml: it both declares your dependencies and (if you publish) describes this repo as a package for the registry.

name: my-soc
dependencies:
  libfpga: "*"                       # latest default branch
  picorv32: { rev: v1.0.3 }          # pin a tag, branch or commit
  libfpga-myhdl: { modules: [lfpga_mac] }   # sub-select from a repo
  private-mac: { git: "https://github.com/acme/mac.git" }

The lockfile (lfpga.lock)

Commit it. Because HDL builds are source-and-elaborate, reproducibility is lockfile-first: it pins the exact commit and the exact build sources, so a build is identical across machines and over time.

Status

Phase 1: manifest, lockfile, git fetch, filelist emitter, SemVer range resolution over a package's git tags (^1.2, ~1.0, 1.x, exact), and module-collision detection. On the roadmap: sim/synth/formal filesets, Edalize/FuseSoC integration (lfpga sim / lfpga synth), and lfpga publish gated by the verification toolchain.

MIT licensed. Part of LibFPGA.