I'm looking to set up an EC2 instance to build FPGA applications, but my local machine is a Mac. Is it possible to use USB over IP in order to flash builds directly from the EC2 instance to the FPGA connected to my Mac? The toolchain I need doesn't work on Macs. I've also thought about using a Raspberry Pi, but I'd prefer to try USB over IP first if it's feasible.
3 Answers
It sounds like you're trying to build something that needs to be flashed onto a device connected to your Mac, but you're running into compatibility issues. You might want to consider setting up a Windows Virtual Machine that can access your local Mac's USB ports. Just a heads-up though, some users face reliability issues with USB passthrough in VMs, and builds can be pretty slow depending on your setup.
I'd suggest getting an old business desktop on eBay for cheap. It's likely to give you a smoother experience when working on your FPGA projects compared to setting everything up in the cloud.
If you're looking at Amazon services, be aware that USB over IP typically only works with Windows, not with other operating systems. For programming FPGAs, generic USB over IP might not work well, especially with sensitive tasks like flashing. The best bet would be to use a local programmer or flasher to handle the FPGA software, export the bitstream to your Mac, and then use a programmer from there. This should be more stable and cross-platform.
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