Update: Lattice has responded to our posts and has added a Maker Community licensing option to get a free license if you are a maker, educator, startup, or enthusiast! Lattice Semiconductor, maker of the prolific iCE40 FPGA has quietly changed the licensing structure of its ICECube2 software, changing it from a free annually renewable license to a paid license reportedly costing over $400 per year. iCECube2 has long been a free software that Lattice Semiconductor acquired when it purchased the iCE40 line of FPGA. It being the only major free tool at the time from Lattice that support the Ultra and LX/HX line of iCE40 FPGA has left owners of Go Boards from Nandland wondering how they’ll use their boards.
While there are open source tools like those from Yosys which includes IceStorm and Nextpnr, there are still limited options for beginners looking to use VHDL, a language that is currently only supported by IceStorm through the GHDL plugin. News of the change in licensing structure broke on Reddit with users expressing a lot of frustration that a tool that counted on for learning VHDL and FPGA was out of reach. This change has sparked outrage especially given that it hasn’t seen a new release since December 2020, over 3 years ago. it’s unclear whether pressure from the online FPGA community can convince Lattice to change course on this paid licensing decision. We will update this article if any news comes out or things change. -Seth Kerr Owner/CEO/CTO Oak Development Technologies edit: added link for Yosys OSS CAD Suite tools. edit: previously said ultra plus was affected, it is not. The LX/HX line are instead.
2 Comments
Rob Mawston
4/19/2024 06:48:17 pm
Might be good to put the yosys top level link in the blog, as sometimes can be missed and folk end up in older , less documented repos.
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Seth Kerr
4/19/2024 06:51:45 pm
Great point, I’ve added it now 👍🏻
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AuthorsSeth is embedded software engineer and open source hardware developer. Archives
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