In the last years I worked on an rewrite for VHDPlus called OneWare. Its cleaner, faster, extensible and OPEN SOURCE!

You can check out the project on our website https://one-ware.com/studio!

With lots of recent performance and bug fixes, we are getting closer to our first stable release.

Our plans for 1.0​

• Better usability and keyboard only usage by hotkeys, global finder
• Improved VCD viewer to be on par with GTKWave
• Graphical Editor for blockfiles
• Package Manager for supported hardware
• Improved VHDL and Verilog support

If you find any bugs or want to suggest a change, feel free to do tell us on our Discord

In the last couple of months we spent a lot of time reworking our VHDP Language Service. With VHDPlus IDE 0.10.6 we use a completely new Analyzer to help you writing your designs.

VHDP Support Changes:

• Greatly improved performance
• Smarter error check
• Type Checking
• Function Insight
• Better completion (especially for record types)

Additional Changelog:

• Improved overall performance
• Solution wide search (CTRL + Shift + F) now opens in a separate window (unless already docked)
• Lots of small bug fixes

Still, there is lots of room for improvement. If you find any bugs or want to suggest a change, feel free to do tell us on our Discord or create an issue in our GitHub repository

We want VHDPlus IDE to be a all in one Tool for all FPGA Programming needs. Since GTKWave was not reliable on some platforms, we decided to create our own VCD viewer.

The VCDViewer in it's current state works with great performance. Still, there are some features missing that will we added with the next updates. If you prefer GTKWave, it is still possible to use it by setting the option Use GTKWave located in Extras -> Settings -> Simulator

Reasons to use the MacOS version​

As you might know, there is no official Quartus for MacOS, so sadly it is not possible to use this version to program our hardware directly. Still, we wanted to publish a version for MacOS, so you can still use your Apple computer to work on your projects.

You can expect the following features:

• Full VHDP and VHDL support
• Simulation with GHDL
• All of our IDE features that are not dependent on Quartus

We will support both x64 and arm64 architecture, so you can expect a smooth experience on your new MacOS hardware.​

Programming Software for your FPGA was never as convenient as today!​

With update 0.9.9.8 you can now conveniently debug your C++ Software inside VHDPlus IDE. Simply set a breakpoint like you would with any other first class C++ IDE, click on the debug icon and wait until the program reaches the selected line of code. The tools allow you to view variables live while you run your program.

Even though not all planned debugger features are implemented, it is already very useful.

A detailed beginner guide on how to use the NIOS II Debugger aswell as an video tutorial will be uploaded soon!

Additional Changelog​

• Added global-search to search for variables inside all open projects
• Added a new, convenient way of changing your active FPGA in case you connected multiple to your Computer
• Lot's of bugfixes & performance improvements

This shield for the Core MAX10 adds three more CRUVI connectors aswell as thee PMOD interaces, which makes it easy to connect camera, motors and ultrasonic sensors at once while powering the FPGA with the same supply as the motors.

The VHDPlus IDE makes it easy to connect pins and extensions.

Detailed specs of the MAX10 Shield can be found here

The first hardware arrived! This includes the Motor Extension, Camera Extension, Core MAX10 and the Level Shifter Extension.

We now test the hardware and package them to ensure the best experience you can get with FPGA development boards.

You can buy the hardware soon in our shop.

New IDE Features​

Team Explorer​

The Team Explorer features an integrated source control using Git. It helps you keeping track of changes in your project, comparing and syncing them with Git providers like GitHub, Azure or others. This new feature makes working on projects together with a team much easier and anyone who used git with other IDEs knows how useful it is to have it integrated.

You can find more information on how the Team Explorer works here.

C++ Support​

We already have made a guide on how to use the NIOS II Softcore processor and how to program it using the Arduino libraries in the past. This process was not very smooth as you had to use a secondary IDE to be able to create, build and program your processor. VHDPlus IDE now supports C++ by using CLANGD, a language server from the LLVM compiler infrastructure project. This means that you now have first class C++ support directly inside our IDE (which in my opinion is a lot better than the old eclipse version used by Intel 😉).

Additionally we have greatly simplified the process of adding a NIOS processor to your project which now works by just a few clicks. Everything works in just three simple steps.

1. Add the Processor to your project using the assistant, compile and download it to your FPGA.
2. Add a software project. This has Arduino libraries included by default. The IDE will setup everything for you so you can start programming immediately.
3. Try out your software by pressing on the green run button which compiles the project and downloads it to your FPGA. You will find a new tutorial for this here in the coming days.

Package Manager​

The Package Manager implements a convenient way of adding features to VHDPlus IDE by just one click. As of version 0.9.7.1 you are able to download and install language support for c++, VHDL, and System-Verilog.

We have big plans with this for the future. You will be able to install libraries, drivers, device supports, custom toolchains for different implementations of softcore processors and other useful stuff just by a few clicks without the need to leave the IDE.

Hardware​

We are getting closer to releasing our official VHDPlus Hardware. You can have a look on what will be available very soon here.

Upcoming IDE Features​

Features we are currently working on​

• A new graphical user interface that will help you connect your hardware with your FPGA.
• An Implementation of GHDL for our IDE which will be called GHDP for better simulation.
• Overall stability and performance improvements

Planned features​

• Full Git support similar to Visual Studio Code.

Documentation & Tutorials​

We started to produce a few step-by-step guides that will show you how easy it is to program with VHDPlus and can help you understand how everything works. They can be found here.

How to use it​

1. Use View -> Serial Monitor to activate it.

2. Select Baud Rate and Serial Port. The Baud Rate should match the one you are using in your UART Interface (Documentation coming soon).

Light Theme​

How to use it​

1. Navigate to Extras -> Settings

2. In the General category, go to Theme and select Light

Future plans​

• Implement a cross-platform ClearType to improve readability.
• Support custom themes

With update 0.9.1 we are confident that the new compiler is stable enough to be used as default. We also fixed some issues and improved the overall editor performance. The built-in updater is much faster now (twice as fast) and should work for all systems without problems.

Select the new compiler​

To select it just navigate to Extras -> Options -> General and change CompilerVersion to 2

Install​

You can try the new update by using the built-in update manager or manually installing it from here

Also it is possible to make signals visible that you wouldn't be able to see by just trying your program on your FPGA because of quickly changing signal states. The VHDP IDE assists you creating .do files that you can load with ModelSim.

You can learn how to use it here

Simulator​

Install​

You can try the new update by using the built-in update manager or manually installing it from here

This completely redesigned version has many technical improvements over the old "Windows only" version, improved usability and support for opening multiple projects at once, making it easy to switch between your projects.

VHDP IDE Design​

Release date​

We are planning to release the first version for both Windows and Linux in September 2019.

VHDP IDE Preview​

We are planning on releasing the first BETA for Windows and Linux soon.

MAC OS Support​

Since the VHDPlus IDE is created with Avalonia, it could run on MAC OS. But in order to compile and program our boards we rely on Quartus from Intel. Sadly, there is no support for MAC OS at the moment.

We could potentially release a version for MAC OS, which would allow programming VHDP and translating to VHDL but not compiling to bitstream. If you are interested in a restricted MAC OS version of our IDE, please write a mail to info@vhdplus.com