Synthesis Dashboard

The Synthesis Dashboard provides one-click FPGA synthesis from the Visual SNN Studio. Generate Verilog from your neuron equations, then synthesise to any supported FPGA target to see resource usage and timing estimates.

No other SNN framework offers visual FPGA synthesis from a web IDE.

Quick Start

1. Write your ODE in the Equation Editor (switch to ODE mode)
2. Click IR to build the intermediate representation
3. Click SV to emit SystemVerilog
4. Switch to the FPGA tab
5. Select your target FPGA (ice40, ECP5, Gowin, Xilinx)
6. Click Synthesise for exact Yosys results, or Estimate for a quick heuristic

Workflows

Single-Target Synthesis

Select a target from the dropdown, click Synthesise. Yosys runs the target-specific synthesis pass and returns resource counts with utilisation bars.

Multi-Target Comparison

Click All Targets to run Yosys synthesis on all four supported targets simultaneously. Results appear in a comparison table showing LUTs, FFs, BRAMs, and DSPs side-by-side, so you can pick the best target for your design.

Resource Estimation (No Yosys Required)

If Yosys is not installed, click Estimate after building the IR. The estimator uses a heuristic based on IR operation count:

• Each IR op maps to ~2 LUTs + 1 FF
• LIF step op maps to ~12 LUTs + 8 FFs + 1 DSP

This gives a rough sizing before committing to a full synthesis run.

End-to-End Pipeline

ODE equation
  → [IR button] SC Intermediate Representation
  → [SV button] SystemVerilog
  → [FPGA tab → Synthesise] Yosys resource report
  → [PnR] nextpnr timing report (ice40/ECP5 only)

From differential equation to FPGA resource estimate in seconds, from a single browser tab.

Supported FPGA Targets

Target	Device	Synth Tool	PnR Tool	LUTs	FFs	BRAMs	DSPs
ice40	iCE40 UP5K	synth_ice40	nextpnr-ice40	5,280	5,280	30	0
ECP5	LFE5U-25F	synth_ecp5	nextpnr-ecp5	24,576	24,576	56	28
Gowin	GW1N	synth_gowin	—	20,736	20,736	41	0
Xilinx	Artix-7	synth_xilinx	—	20,800	41,600	50	90

Resource Metrics

The dashboard shows four resource bars:

• LUTs — Look-Up Tables (combinational logic)
• Flip-Flops — Sequential elements (registers)
• Block RAMs — On-chip memory blocks
• DSPs — Digital Signal Processing blocks (multipliers)

Each bar shows absolute count and percentage utilisation against the target device's capacity. The multi-target comparison table shows all four metrics across all targets.

Tool Installation

The synthesis pipeline uses open-source FPGA tools:

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install yosys nextpnr

# Ubuntu/Debian
apt install yosys nextpnr-ice40

# Windows (MSYS2)
pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-yosys

# Verify installation
yosys --version
nextpnr-ice40 --version

The /api/synth/tools-status endpoint reports which tools are available. The dashboard shows green/grey indicators for each tool, with version strings when available.

API Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/api/synth/tools-status	Detect installed EDA tools
POST	/api/synth/run	Verilog + target → Yosys synthesis
POST	/api/synth/multi-target	Verilog → all targets comparison
POST	/api/synth/estimate	IR op count → heuristic estimate
POST	/api/synth/pnr	JSON netlist → nextpnr place & route

GET /api/synth/tools-status

Returns availability and version for each tool:

{
  "yosys": {"available": true, "version": "Yosys 0.40"},
  "nextpnr_ice40": {"available": true, "version": "nextpnr-ice40 0.7"},
  "nextpnr_ecp5": {"available": false, "version": null},
  "firtool": {"available": false, "version": null}
}

POST /api/synth/run

{
  "verilog": "module sc_lif(...); ... endmodule",
  "target": "ice40"
}

Returns:

{
  "success": true,
  "target": "ice40",
  "resources": {"luts": 42, "ffs": 18, "brams": 0, "dsps": 0, "cells": 60, "wires": 85},
  "capacity": {"luts": 5280, "ffs": 5280, "brams": 30, "dsps": 0},
  "utilisation": {"luts": 0.8, "ffs": 0.3, "brams": 0.0, "dsps": 0.0},
  "log_excerpt": "..."
}

POST /api/synth/multi-target

{"verilog": "module sc_lif(...); ... endmodule"}

Returns synthesis results for all supported targets:

{
  "targets": {
    "ice40": {"success": true, "target": "ice40", "resources": {...}, ...},
    "ecp5": {"success": true, "target": "ecp5", "resources": {...}, ...},
    "gowin": {"success": true, ...},
    "xilinx": {"success": true, ...}
  },
  "supported": ["ice40", "ecp5", "gowin", "xilinx"]
}

POST /api/synth/estimate

Quick heuristic estimate without running Yosys:

{"ir_op_count": 10, "target": "ice40"}

Returns:

{
  "target": "ice40",
  "estimated": true,
  "resources": {"luts": 32, "ffs": 18, "brams": 0, "dsps": 1},
  "capacity": {"luts": 5280, "ffs": 5280, "brams": 30, "dsps": 0},
  "utilisation": {"luts": 0.6, "ffs": 0.3, "brams": 0.0, "dsps": 0.0}
}

POST /api/synth/pnr

Place-and-route a Yosys JSON netlist (ice40 and ECP5 only):

{"json_path": "/path/to/design.json", "target": "ice40"}

Returns timing analysis:

{
  "success": true,
  "max_freq_mhz": 48.3,
  "critical_path": "clk -> neuron.v_reg -> spike_out",
  "log_excerpt": "..."
}