Any native Mac OS X environments for getting started with VHDL / FPGAs?

Short answer: yes.

There are a few simulators: GHDL is an open source simulator. Not as good as the mainstream simulators, but it will get you started.

There is Sigasi, a VHDL design entry and code comprehension tool, which works on Mac. This will help you write your code before you send it to the simulator.

As for synthesis tools, you should take a look at Plunify. The offer synthesis "in the cloud," so that's not tied to any platform.

You will probably end up using VMWare or Parallels sooner or later, but sure you can get started designing VHDL on your Mac.

(disclosure: I'm on the Sigasi team)


Short Answer Nope!

I have investigated this in the past, and sure you can use a text editor to write the code, but none of the major (xilinx and altera) have any design flows for the mac os x platform, so synthesizing and place and route are out.

On the simulation front, I did find a program that claims to perform simulation for the mac platform, but I had my doubts on the quality of said program.

Best option is to dual boot (parallels or fusion) into windows or linux. Having said Linux, I am not sure if you can get the free webpacks to support Linux, they may only be windows based for the free tools.

So either dual boot or use remote desktop type thing to access a windows PC. It is a bugger, I know but such is life on a mac :)

Tags:

Fpga

Vhdl

Mac