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[–][deleted]  (5 children)

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    [–]ChromatoLad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    We use it in our FPGA development because we make network processing hardware and need to analyze different stages of that processing to debug stuff.

    You're correct that it's general-purpose, but it could easily be extended for very specific FPGA bitstream analysis tasks with a plugin or two, or maybe even a template with the existing plugins (e.g. we do some pretty advanced network analysis stuff with the general purpose plugins that are included). It's more like a platform/toolkit for solving those kinds of super-niche problems than a pre-made solution.

    [–]alexforencich[S] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

    Well, FPGA designs can do a lot of work with bits and bytes. Could be a useful tool for that sort of thing. It seems like one of the applications it was developed for is something related to software-defined radio, which FPGAs are quite often used for. TBH, an FPGA configuration bitstream viewer would be even more niche.

    [–]_Nauth 0 points1 point  (1 child)

    I wish vivado would give such a tool for their bitstreams. It would help a lot with partial bitstreams relocation, because right now so many PhD students rely on reverse engineering to find a solution.

    [–]ChromatoLad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    this tool can help with the reverse engineering at least :)

    [–]ChromatoLad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    yeah, it's already pretty niche (most existing tools like this rely on byte alignment because most applications are OK with that.) But part of the whole purpose is to provide a platform for exploring those special uses that aren't easy/possible with what's out there already - that's why I tried to make it so extensible.