Free Tools?

--- Quote Start ---

What FREE tools are available for synthesis and simulation?

FREE means:

*gratis (no cost) --- yes, the intel/altera 'lite' edition is completely free to download -- see https://www.altera.com/downloads/download-center.html. similar for xilinx and lattice devices

*license (if required) lasts forever; never expires --- not applicable, no license required

*license cannot be tied to hardware --- not applicable, no license required

*anybody and everybody can get and use the tool --- depends, some countries may be subject to export restrictions, like dprnk. read the fine print

*could be closed source, but prefer open source --- all tools i know of for fpga layout are closed source, as the very low level device architecture info is proprietary

*must run on Linux --- most do, like altera tools, but are 'officially supported' only on specific linux distros and releases. the tools are precompiled, no sources available.

*must be statically linked to avoid library issues in the future --- i am not sure you get a choice on this, most likely not in my experience. see my previous comment.

I want to play around with SoC architectures making high-bandwidth data radios for amateur radio.

If it is a hassle to get the tools, or if there are any financial costs, no large community will develop as it has in the Linux world. So it must meet all of the requirements listed above. I'm willing to pay for hardware, but not software. -- i daresay that the current fpga development community probably dwarfs the number of amateur radio sdr developers/users by a factor of 10x. a lot of these are low end developers and university student projects, as well as electronics hobbyists. there are already lots of fpga-based sdr radios available both as commercial products and hobbbyist/open-source projects.

This is for a hobby: amateur radio.

If there are any such tools that meet these requirements, then what limitations do they have?

Thank you,

Ken Hendrickson

PS As long as FPGA manufacturers charge money for their software tools, there will never develop a maker community experimenting with them as a hobby. --- as i mentioned above, all major fpga device developers offer a fully free design environment that supports, for the most part, their low end and medium density fpga devices. if you want to experiment with state of the art bleeding edge devices expect to pay for the tools.

--- quote end ---

My comments inline, above, in bold.

Don

AK6DN