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Update

Changelog #4: Groups, waveforms, VGA, and a calmer IDE

A lot has changed since August. Groups are now a proper classroom tool, waveforms open in the IDE itself, you can see your design drive a VGA monitor, and the IDE has been through two design passes. Plenty of smaller fixes landed along the way, from stopping a run mid-flight to resetting a password with a code.

Here is what landed.

Groups for classrooms and workshops

Groups launched publicly in August and have grown a lot since. Leaders can run a whole course from one page, and members get a clear path through the work.

  • Labs for every kind of design. Verilog labs, cocotb labs, circuit design labs, and unmarked labs where there is no pass or fail. Marking is picked for you from how you last ran the project, and you can change it or switch it off.
  • Start a lab in one step. Members press one button and land in a ready workspace. A back link takes them to the group, and leaders get a gradebook on each lab page.
  • Edit a lab after it has gone out. Change the details, or edit the lab files in the IDE and push the update to members. Members can reset a lab to the start, or pull in the leader's update.
  • See how your group is doing. Leaders can open a member's code, read only. Members are told this before they start, and the lab workspace says so too.
  • Materials. Upload a folder of pages, such as a workshop book, and members open it in a new tab with one click.
  • Put the labs in order. Press Reorder on the Labs tab and everyone sees the same sequence.
  • Certificates. When a lab's project has a finished LibreLane run, you can generate a certificate: your name, a 3D view of your layout, and the real numbers from the run. Download it as an image.
  • Open to every plan for now. Anyone can create or join a group, and you can leave one yourself.

For universities and companies there are now organisations: one code, a set number of seats, and everyone who joins gets Enterprise until the end date. Get in touch if you want one for your team.

Waveforms, inside the IDE

Waveforms now open in Surfer, a full waveform viewer, served from Vulkos so nothing leaves the site.

  • In the dock. Press Open Wave and a Waves tab opens next to the terminal. Switch tabs and your signals are still there.
  • Pick any run. The sidebar lists the runs that left a waveform. When a newer run finishes, one click loads it.
  • Open in a new tab when you want the whole screen.
  • Failed runs too. A run that fails still gives you its waveform, which is when you want it most.

VGA, on a screen you can see

Run a design that draws to a screen and watch it on a virtual VGA monitor, in the browser, without waiting for hardware.

  • VGA output lives under Inspect. It has its own full-screen workspace with file tabs and a resizable split.
  • Starters. Racing and paddle games, a sync generator, and more in the File menu.
  • Board view. If your design has no VGA output, such as a seven-segment decoder or a colour mixer, it is plugged into a drawn demo board with a display, LEDs and switches, so you can still see it work. The board is never written into your project.

A calmer, clearer IDE

  • Two design passes. New fonts, a quieter top bar, menus that fade in, and a light-only look. The IDE now loads faster, with one editor instead of two.
  • Synthesize. Inspect now has a Synthesize tab: cell count, cell area, flip-flops, latches, and which cells your design uses.
  • Runs say what happened. A run is marked Completed or Failed first. It only reads Passed or Tests failed when your testbench or cocotb gives a clear answer.
  • Run history keeps your code. Open an old Icarus, Verilator or cocotb run and you see the files it actually ran.
  • Stop a run. Cancel a job and it really stops, instead of lingering in the queue. The queue only counts the jobs ahead of you.
  • More PDKs. Pick GF180 or IHP SG13G2 as well as Sky130, and choose your timing corners, from the LibreLane menu.
  • An AI menu. Choose Agent or Explain, pick a model, run quick actions, or turn AI off completely. Explain is now a tutor: it teaches rather than editing your files.
  • Apply and Keep on the chat card. Proposed changes show their diff in the conversation, and replies no longer stop silently. There is an Answer now button if you do not want to wait.
  • The first-chip tour is gone. You land straight in the editor.

Circuit Lab and the logic lab

  • NMOS and PMOS parts, engineering units like 4.7k and 10u, and a set of MOSFET defaults that match the probe and trace colours.
  • Short share links for circuits.
  • Pick a template before the lab opens. Create now leads with pictures.
  • Save lab designs and find them in My Work.
  • Synthesized gates appear on the logic lab's own canvas.
  • A truth table panel in the logic lab, so you can see every input combination at once.
  • Circuit design labs in groups, so classes can set and mark circuit work too.

Learn

  • Pick up where you left off. Courses remember your place, and lessons are open to read without signing in.
  • Try a finished exercise again without losing the lesson.

Tiny Tapeout

  • Push to Tiny Tapeout from Vulkos. Connect your GitHub account and send a project to a Tiny Tapeout repo in one go, with a zip download as a fallback. Your project goes in as a single commit, ready for the Tiny Tapeout flow.

My Work

  • Folders. Group your projects, labs and designs into flat folders on My Work.

Plans, accounts and the site

  • Pro is £20 a month with a 14 day trial. The Free plan keeps up to 15 projects, and run history now depends on your plan.
  • Reset your password with an emailed code instead of a link that might open in the wrong browser.
  • A new About page, from the team.

Coming soon

  • Analysis on its own build servers, so the Synthesize summary appears for every run, not just LibreLane ones.

Open the IDE, press Open Wave after a run, or start a group with your class. If something feels off, tell us in the in-platform feedback or by email.

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