Spinal is an hardware description language written in Scala, a static-type functional language using the Java virtual machine (JVM). In order to start programming with Spinal, you must have a JVM as well as the Scala compiler. In the next section, we will explain how to download those tools if you don’t have them already.

Requirements / Things to download to get started

Before you download the Spinal tools, you need to install :

A Java JDK, which can be downloaded for instance here.
A Scala distribution, which can be downloaded here.
The SBT build tool, which can be downloaded here.

Optionally, if you need an IDE (which is not compulsory) we advise you to get IntelliJ.

How to start programming with Spinal

Once you have downloaded all the requirements, there are two ways to get started with Spinal programming.

The simple way : get a project already setup for you in an IDE and start programming right away.
The most flexible way : if you already are familiar with the SBT build system and/or if you don’t need an IDE.

The simple way, with IntelliJ IDEA and its Scala plugin

In addition to the aforementioned requirements, you also need to download the IntelliJ IDEA (the free Community edition is enough). When you have installed IntelliJ, also check that you have enabled its Scala plugin (install information can be found here).

And do the following :

Either clone or download the “getting started” repository.
In Intellij IDEA, “import project” with the root of this repository, the choose the Import project from external model SBT and be sure to check all boxes.
In addition, you might need to specify some path like where you installed the JDK to IntelliJ.
In the project (Intellij project GUI), right click on src/main/scala/MyCode/TopLevel.scala and select “Run MyTopLevel”

Normally, this must generate the output file MyTopLevel.vhd in the project directory which corresponds to the most most simple Spinal example.

The flexible way

We have prepared a ready to go project for you on Github.

Either clone or download the “getting started” repository.
Open a terminal in the root of it and run sbt run. When you execute it for the first time, the process could take some time as it will download all the dependencies required to run Spinal.

Normally, this command must generate an output file MyTopLevel.vhd which corresponds to the top level Spinal code defined in src\main\scala\MyCode.scala which corresponds to the most simple Spinal example.

A very simple Spinal example

The following code generates an and gate between two one bit inputs.

 import spinal.core._

 class AND_Gate extends Component {

   /**
     * This is the component definition that corresponds to
     * the VHDL entity of the component
     */
   val io = new Bundle {
     val a = in Bool
     val b = in Bool
     val c = out Bool
   }

   // Here we define some asynchronous logic
   io.c := io.a & io.b
 }

 object AND_Gate {
   // Let's go
   def main(args: Array[String]) {
     SpinalVhdl(new AND_Gate)
   }
 }

As you can see, the first lin e you have to write in Spinal is import spinal.core._ which indicates that we are using the Spinal components in the file.

Generated code

Once you have successfully compiled your code, the compiler should have emit the following VHDL code :

@TODO Complete this

What to do next ?

It’s up to you, but why not have a look at what the types are in Spinal or discover what primitives the language provides to describe hardware components? You could also have a look at our examples to see some samples of what you could do next.

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Getting started with Spinal