Installing ghdl

How to install ghdl.

ghdl is offered in two versions :

mcode

The mcode version offers quick compilation, handling of large files such as gate level netlists, and easy installation on systems where gcc is difficult to install. It is limited to 32-bit Intel x86 architecture processors, and execution speed of the resulting design is a little slower. In one test the speed penalty was measured at only 20% so may be acceptable in many circumstances. (TODO: better quantify speed difference).

gcc

The gcc version is built into the gcc compiler, adding VHDL to the many languages supported by gcc the Gnu Compiler Collection, and allows ghdl to be used on a wider range of architectures including 64-bit systems. As gcc is an optimising compiler, the resulting executable offers higher performance, but compilation can be slower and the gcc compiler optimisation passes can choke on sufficiently large designs.

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Ideally, for either version, all you would need to do is download and install a pre-built package.

That is possible if your desired ghdl version and operating system are in the following list:

ghdl - gcc version

Apple OS X (Mac) : This package should be available via the Download button. See the Readme for information on installing it.

Debian, Ubuntu, Mint etc: Instructions for installing ghdl on Debian (Ubuntu, Mint etc) systems.

Fedora, OpenSuse etc : (TODO : rpm package download and install instructions)

FreeBSD (and similar BSD) : Instructions for installing ghdl on BSD systems.

ghdl - mcode version

Debian, Ubuntu, Mint etc:

Apple OS X (Mac) : The mcode version is available via this package. See the Readme for information on installing it.

Windows Instructions for manual installation of ghdl-0.31 from zipfile.

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Systems NOT on the list:

These instructions allow ghdl-0.31 to be built from the source package

ghdl-0.31 release - gcc version

For other Linux distributions you will have to build ghdl from source.

For Apple Mac, these instructions should allow you to build ghdl-gcc from source. They have been tested on OSX 10.9 and should work on OS X 10.8.

We do not yet have instructions for building ghdl-gcc from source on Windows.

For FreeBSD (and similar BSD) software packages are generally built from source, using the ports system : GHDL-gcc Instructions

ghdl-0.31 release - mcode version

The mcode version is easier to build.

Follow these instructions for Linux and OS X.

Follow these instructions for Windows.

For FreeBSD (and similar BSD) software packages are generally built from source, using the ports system : GHDL-mcode Instructions

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Instructions for building the development version:

These can be found on the GHDL Developer page