Silicon for the People: How Open FPGA & ASIC Toolchains Are Democratising Chip Design

For decades, creating a custom FPGA or ASIC was something only multinational semiconductor giants could afford.EDA tools were proprietary. Foundry access was restricted. And costs were astronomical.

Startups, research labs, or embedded engineering teams didn’t “design silicon.”They bought off-the-shelf chips and optimized around them.

But the wall that separated innovators from silicon has now cracked wide open.

A new generation of open-source FPGA and ASIC toolchains has made chip design accessible — from writing RTL and synthesizing bitstreams to taping out actual silicon without spending crores on licenses or waiting for corporate approval.

This is no longer theory.It’s the new hardware reality.

Why Open Silicon Matters

As industries shift toward EV powertrains, autonomous systems, IoT networks, defense electronics, and AI edge devices, differentiation now lives inside the silicon.

It’s where the performance, security, and intelligence truly reside — in the hardware itself.

Custom silicon unlocks:

• Cryptographic accelerators and secure boot blocks

• AI and DSP accelerators for edge intelligence

• Hardened safety logic and redundant watchdogs

• Secure communication buses and memory controllers

• Custom neural inference engines

If your system depends on the same commodity microcontroller your competitor buys —you don’t own your product’s innovation.

Open FPGA and ASIC ecosystems now let startups and engineering teams:

• Experiment with custom logic

• Build and modify RISC-V soft CPUs

• Integrate DSP, AI, and motor-control blocks

• Add security or redundancy

• Tape out real silicon using open PDKs

This is where IoT product engineering meets hardware independence.

The FPGA Revolution: Where It All Began

The first breakthrough came when engineers reverse-engineered low-cost FPGAs, making bitstream formats publicly understood.

Suddenly, what was once hidden behind vendor IDEs became accessible through open tools.

• Project Icestorm – Fully open-source toolchain for Lattice iCE40 FPGAs

• Project Trellis – Open access to Lattice ECP5 family with DDR and SerDes

• Project X-Ray – Reverse-engineered Xilinx 7-series architecture

• Yosys + nextpnr + Icestorm/Trellis – End-to-end synthesis, place-and-route, and bitstream generation

• openFPGALoader – Program FPGAs across vendors without proprietary drivers
  

Today, a university or robotics startup can design industrial-grade FPGA logic entirely on open software — accelerating digital transformation for infrastructure and Industrial IoT and automation.

Behind Every FPGA and ASIC: HDL, the Real Engineering Language

Every hardware design begins with HDL — Verilog or VHDL.Open tools have now taken over the complete flow.

• Yosys – Open-source Verilog synthesis standard

• Verilator – Fast, cycle-accurate simulation compiled to C++

• GHDL – Full-featured VHDL simulator

• Cocotb – Write testbenches in Python

• GTKWave – Visualize waveforms and debug logic

• Icarus Verilog – Ideal for education and lightweight simulation

Together, they allow engineers — from startups to universities — to perform end-to-end embedded product design using freely available tools that rival commercial EDA suites.

Soft-Core CPUs: Bringing Intelligence Into Hardware

Sometimes, a microcontroller isn’t enough — and a full SoC is too heavy.Enter soft-core CPUs — small, customizable processors inside your FPGA fabric.

Open-source RISC-V cores such as:

• PicoRV32 – Minimalist RISC-V for compact designs

• VexRiscv – Modular, cache-enabled core capable of running Linux

• Rocket Chip – Full SoC generator used in real ASICs

• OpenTitan Ibex – Security-hardened core with side-channel resistance

• SERV – The smallest RISC-V CPU ever created
  

Now, startups and defense teams are building:

• Crypto accelerators beside RISC-V cores

• AI inference engines for Edge AI embedded systems

• Real-time control logic for robotics and power electronics

This convergence of embedded intelligence and hardware design is shaping the next wave of AI-powered embedded systems.

The Real Breakthrough: Open ASICs

FPGAs are flexible — but ASICs deliver power, performance, and permanence.For decades, ASIC design required million-dollar software and foundry access.

Not anymore.

• SkyWater 130nm PDK 

• The world’s first open foundry process, sponsored by Google and SkyWater Technologies.

• OpenROAD + OpenLane – RTL-to-GDSII flow for full silicon design

• SiliconCompiler – Python-based chip compiler

• Magic VLSI, KLayout, OpenSTA, Netgen – Layout, timing, and sign-off tools
  

And the best part?Google + Efabless offer free MPW shuttle programs — allowing open-source chip designs to be fabricated for ₹0.

This gives IoT & embedded services companies in India the power to create their own ASICs — no licenses, no NDAs, no barriers.

Full SoC Design, the Open Way

When an FPGA product requires full connectivity — from DDR and PCIe to USB or Ethernet — the open community already has the answer.

• LiteX – Framework for building full FPGA SoCs

• Migen / Amaranth HDL – Python HDLs that generate RTL dynamically

• LiteScope – Embedded logic analyzer for real-time debugging

• OpenFPGALoader – Board bring-up and programming
  

Now, hardware design feels like software — compile, flash, debug, iterate.This is custom embedded software development at the silicon level.

Why This Revolution Matters to Startups, Industry, and Defense

Open silicon is not just about cost — it’s about control and sovereignty.

• Defense electronics teams can build secure, trusted logic on RISC-V.

• Robotics companies can design motion-control DSP cores their competitors can’t copy.

• Space and satellite teams can create radiation-hardened logic with ECC memory.

• Industrial automation firms can secure supply chains with custom long-life silicon.

Owning your silicon means owning your innovation — the foundation of smart infrastructure solutions and AI for smart cities.

The Human Side: Creativity Returns to Hardware

Ask any engineer what frustrates them most — and you’ll hear it:vendor lock-ins, license servers, and black-box binaries.

Open FPGA/ASIC ecosystems bring back what engineers love:

• Curiosity

• Freedom

• Transparency

• Community

• Experimentation

Hardware design becomes what it should be again: scientific and creative.

Final Thoughts: The Democratization of Silicon

The semiconductor future won’t be owned by a few corporations.It will be built collaboratively — by engineers, startups, researchers, and open-source contributors.

With open FPGA and ASIC toolchains, you can:

• Design and simulate custom hardware

• Build and verify soft CPUs

• Generate real bitstreams

• Tape out silicon on open PDKs

• Debug, validate, and ship

• Own your hardware IP

The door to silicon innovation is open — permanently.

EurthTech: Building the Next Generation of Open Hardware

At EurthTech, we help engineering teams move from ideas to silicon.

Our expertise spans:

• FPGA design and logic development

• RISC-V SoC and soft-core integration

• ASIC design using open PDKs like SkyWater

• Custom DSP and security IP blocks

• Post-silicon validation and testing
  

We combine Embedded systems development, AI-powered embedded systems, and IoT product engineering to help clients build chips that define the future of smart infrastructure and edge intelligence.

Because owning your silicon isn’t just about hardware.It’s about owning your innovation. Need expert guidance for your next engineering challenge?

Connect with us today — we offer a complimentary first consultation to help you move forward with clarity.

  Need expert guidance for your next engineering challenge?

Connect with us today — we offer a complimentary first consultation to help you move forward with clarity.

Contact us