SymbiFlow is not just a simple open source replacement for closed source tools. Thanks to the modularity of the workflow and the possibility of modifying any part of the flow, new use cases for FPGAs emerge, whereas some of the existing ones are greatly streamlined.

At this point SymbiFlow already enables several significant improvements in existing flows, which need to be described to highlight SymbiFlow’s importance beyond the basic benefit of having a free & open source toolchain. These documents could take the form of short case studies developed in collaboration with the respective organizations, 1-2 pages in length, optimally with a diagram to visually show where the benefit to the workflow lies.

The use cases should be described from the perspective of the organizations which are doing interesting research and development work with SymbiFlow, including the benefits they are seeing or projecting to see thanks to SymbiFlow.

• QuickLogic: open ecosystem building
• Antmicro: FPGA CI and software-driven FPGA development
• runtime optimization via massive parallelization
• Penn State University: partial reconfiguration flows

The user stories could also be distilled into more generic “benefits for users” which can be put on the project website.