Run MicroPython On Your SoC

A Python prompt on the serial port of your SoC, with litex.leds() and your CSRs reachable from it. The port of MicroPython lives in litex-hub/micropython (ports/litex), runs on any SoC with a supported CPU (the RISC-V cores, Mor1kx, LM32), and builds against the headers of your SoC like the BIOS does. Fifteen minutes.

1. Build the SoC

Any board of LiteX-Boards, here the Arty with GPIOs on a Pmod. MicroPython wants about 32 KiB of RAM and 128 KiB for the firmware: a block RAM main RAM is enough on mid-size FPGAs, otherwise a DRAM.

python3 -m litex_boards.targets.digilent_arty --with-ethernet --with-pmod-gpio --build --load

2. Build MicroPython against it

git clone https://github.com/litex-hub/micropython && cd micropython/ports/litex
export BUILD_DIRECTORY=<path to>/build/digilent_arty       # the headers and the compiler flags of your SoC
make                                                        # build/firmware.bin

3. Boot it and talk Python

litex_term /dev/ttyUSB1 --kernel=build/firmware.bin         # or boot.bin on the TFTP server or the SD card

>>> import litex
>>> litex.leds(0b0101)
>>> import umachine; umachine.freq()

Et voilà! umachine gives the basics (reset, frequency, identifier) and the litex module the LEDs, the switches and the CSRs. The other boot methods are on the firmware page.

The older FuPy and CircuitPython ports, and MQuickJS (the same idea with JavaScript), are on OSes ecosystem.

Next

• Run Zephyr on your SoC: an RTOS instead of a prompt.
• Write firmware for it: the C the port is built on.
• OSes ecosystem: everything that runs on a LiteX SoC.