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The Arduino experience, for FPGAs.

Logix IDE is a simple, friendly app for programming FPGA boards. If you've used the Arduino IDE, you already know how it works: write your design, click Verify to check it, and click Upload to put it on your board. No command line, no complicated setup.

What's an FPGA, and why Logix IDE?

An FPGA is a chip you can rewire with code. Instead of running a program step by step like a microcontroller, it becomes the circuit you describe: counters, blinking LEDs, video signals, even a whole processor. You describe the circuit in Verilog, a hardware description language.

Getting started with FPGAs used to mean installing many tools and learning their commands. Logix IDE takes care of all of that so you can focus on your design. It's built on Logix Engine and the open source FPGA tools, and it downloads everything it needs by itself.

What you can do

• ✏️ Write Verilog in a clean editor with syntax colors. Mistakes are underlined as you type.
• ✅ Verify your design: Logix IDE checks it for common mistakes, builds it, and tells you how much of the FPGA it uses and how fast it can run.
• ⚡ Upload it to your board with one click. Logix IDE even tells you when your board is connected.
• 📚 Learn from examples: more than 110 ready-to-run examples for over 80 boards, from a blinking LED onwards.
• 🧪 Test and simulate your design with testbenches, and look at its signals in GTKWave, without a board.
• 🔍 See your design as a diagram of its modules and signals.

_{GTKWave screenshot from the Apio project.}

Install Logix IDE

Logix IDE runs on Macs with Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) and on Windows PCs (x64). Linux is planned.

macOS

1. On the releases page, find the release marked Latest (not necessarily the newest one: newer pre-releases are development builds) and download its logix-ide-darwin-arm64-<date>.dmg to your Downloads folder.

2. Open Terminal and run this command, using the name of the file you downloaded. Logix IDE isn't signed by Apple yet, and this tells your Mac it's OK to open it:

   xattr -c ~/Downloads/logix-ide-darwin-arm64-<date>.dmg
   

3. Double-click the .dmg file and drag Logix IDE into your Applications folder. Dragging only copies it: nothing opens, and that's expected.

4. Start Logix IDE: open Finder, click Applications in the sidebar and double-click Logix IDE (or press Command-Space, type Logix IDE and press Return). The first time, it downloads the FPGA tools it needs. This takes a few minutes and needs an internet connection. After that, Logix IDE starts quickly and works offline too.

Windows

1. On the releases page, find the release marked Latest and download its logix-ide-windows-x86-64-<date>.msi.
2. Double-click it. If Windows says Windows protected your PC, click More info, then Run anyway: Logix IDE isn't signed yet.
3. Follow the installer, and choose Yes when Windows asks whether it may make changes to your device.
4. Start Logix IDE from the Start menu. The first time, it downloads the FPGA tools it needs, as on macOS. Many boards also need the WinUSB driver: Upload offers to install it the first time.

That's it: nothing else to install.

Is it safe to install?

It's wise to be careful with apps from the internet, so here's how Logix IDE earns your trust:

• Fully open source. All of Logix IDE's code is public, right here in this repository. Anyone can read it, check it, and suggest improvements. It's free to use, change and share under MIT or the Apache License 2.0, at your option, except for using the name Logix.
• Built in the open. Every installer is built by GitHub's servers from this public code, using public build scripts (.github/workflows). No installer is ever built on someone's personal computer, and each release lists the exact code version it was built from.
• Scanned for viruses. Each installer is automatically scanned with ClamAV, an open source antivirus, before it's published.
• Made by the Apio maintainer. Logix IDE is made by the main maintainer of Apio, the open source FPGA toolchain whose tools and examples Logix IDE builds on, with one goal: making FPGAs accessible and fun for everyone.

Why the Terminal step, then? Apple asks app makers to pay for a yearly developer account to "sign" their apps. Logix IDE isn't signed that way yet, so macOS is cautious with it by default. The xattr -c command only tells your Mac that you chose to open this file you downloaded. It doesn't change any security setting on your Mac.

Your first blinking LED

1. Start Logix IDE and wait for Ready. at the bottom of the window. Choose your board in the list at the top (the iCESugar v1.5 at first), then click Examples… on the start screen and open blinky.
2. Click the Verify button . Logix IDE builds the design and shows how much of the FPGA it uses.
3. Plug in your board. When Logix IDE sees it, the word next to the board list changes to Connected.
4. Click the Upload button . Your board's LED starts blinking! 🎉
5. Now make it your own: change the blinking speed, save it with File > Save Project, and upload again.

The tutorial walks through these steps with pictures.

Learn more

The Logix IDE documentation covers everything, in short, beginner-friendly pages:

• Tutorial
• Installing
• Tour
• Using Logix IDE
• Testbenches and simulation
• Troubleshooting

You can also open these pages from Logix IDE's Help menu.

Need help or found a problem?

Check Troubleshooting first. If you're still stuck, choose Help > Report a Problem in Logix IDE, or open an issue on GitHub. It helps a lot to attach Logix IDE's logs: Help > Show Log Folder, then drag the .log files in that folder into your report.

Thanks

Logix IDE stands on the shoulders of great open source projects: Apio and the FPGAwars community, Yosys, nextpnr, Icarus Verilog, Verilator, Verible, GTKWave and more. Thank you!

For developers

Want to change Logix IDE itself? See DEVELOPERS.md.

Trademarks

Logix IDE is not affiliated with or endorsed by Arduino. Arduino is a trademark of Arduino SA. Logix IDE only compares itself to the Arduino IDE to describe how it feels.

License

Logix IDE is licensed under MIT or the Apache License 2.0, at your option: you can use, copy, change, share and sell it, as long as you keep the copyright and license notices.

The one exception is the name "Logix", which isn't part of that (the license doesn't give rights to names or trademarks). If you make your own version, please give it a different name, so people can tell it apart from the original.