Getting Started

Author: Johannes Hofmann 2025

This chapter provides a quick introduction for working with the PicoNut project – both in simulation and on real hardware. It outlines the required tools and guides you through running a basic “Hello World” example.

Prerequisites

For simulation of the PicoNut using its SystemC model:

For software compilation:

For synthesizing:

  • OSS CAD Suite (tested with 2024-07-16) (latest release)

  • Intel® Compiler for SystemC (tested with releases 1.25.1 and 1.6.8) (latest release)

Alternatively, you can build a Docker image created for the PicoNut project, which includes all the necessary software preinstalled.

Note

The build process is pretty resource intensive. It is highly recommended to have at least ~24Gb of memory as well as ~80Gb of disk space available. There is a minimal version available with the option -m. It takes less time to build and as well as less disk space.

Navigate to the base directory of the source tree.

$ cd tools/docker
$ ./docker-create-piconut-image.sh

To run the examples, a shell in the container can be started as follows:

$ docker compose up -d
$ docker exec -it piconut_container bash

Note

Older versions of Docker Compose may require to write docker-compose instead of docker compose.

Running the “Hello World” Example in Simulation

Navigate to the base directory of the source tree.

$ cd sw/applications/hello_newlib
$ make sim

If everything works, console should show the output of a simple hello world program.

Running the “Hello World” Example on ULX3S FPGA Board

Note

Currently the ULX3S FPGA development board is supported only.

  1. Setup ULX3S udev rules. They are found here.

  2. Plug the USB cable from your computer into the US1 USB port of the ULX3S.

  3. To flash you need to specify a system that is synthesizable for example refdesign_hw. To use other systems change the PN_SYSTEM variable:

Navigate to the base directory of the source tree.

$ cd sw/applications/hello_newlib
$ PN_SYSTEM=refdesign_hw make flash

  1. To see the printed “Hello World!” output via UART. The UART signal is transmitted via the FTDI chip. It has a baudrate of 115200. The port (typical ttyUSB0) is available after the FPGA was flashed. To connect type:

$ picocom -b 115200 /dev/ttyXXXX

If everything works, console should show the output of a simple hello world program.

Note

To reset the system press the button F1 on the board.