Is there any way of using the Xilinx toolchain on a Mac? I have become spoiled by my Mac Mini, and unpacking my loud PC just to run place-and-route seems inelegant. Tom
Stupid question
Started by ●April 4, 2005
Reply by ●April 4, 20052005-04-04
On 04 Apr 2005 19:48:58 +0100 (BST), Thomas Womack <twomack@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:>Is there any way of using the Xilinx toolchain on a Mac? > >I have become spoiled by my Mac Mini, and unpacking my loud PC >just to run place-and-route seems inelegant. > >Tomgive this a try http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/virtualpc/virtualpc.aspx
Reply by ●April 4, 20052005-04-04
mk wrote:> On 04 Apr 2005 19:48:58 +0100 (BST), Thomas Womack > <twomack@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote: > > >>Is there any way of using the Xilinx toolchain on a Mac? >> >>I have become spoiled by my Mac Mini, and unpacking my loud PC >>just to run place-and-route seems inelegant. >> >>Tom > > > give this a try > http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/virtualpc/virtualpc.aspxAhh...Even if it runs, expect at least a 10 fold performance decrease on PAR (assuming that you have already upgraded the mini mac's pathetic 256MB RAM). Sadly it is already slow enough. With the time that you wasted waiting for PAR to finish, might as well spend some time installing a water-cool x86 box. Better yet, running the tools on an xbox (with linux) might even be faster (http://www.xbox-linux.org/)! -jz
Reply by ●April 4, 20052005-04-04
Hi Jason,> Better yet, running the tools on an xbox (with linux) might even be faster > (http://www.xbox-linux.org/)!Hmmm... A Celery 733 is not exactly the preferred CPU for computing-intensive stuff like P&R. I can even imagine a G5 using VirtualPC running faster than that. Best regards, Ben
Reply by ●April 5, 20052005-04-05
Thomas Womack wrote:> Is there any way of using the Xilinx toolchain on a Mac? > > I have become spoiled by my Mac Mini, and unpacking my loud PC > just to run place-and-route seems inelegant. > > Tom >Try keeping your noisy PC elsewhere on a network and use Virtual Desktop under Virtual PC (eek!!!) -Jim
Reply by ●April 5, 20052005-04-05
Here is a solution for your noise, http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=151&code=020 The cost could not be the issue if you start using Altera devices :-) Thomas Womack wrote:> Is there any way of using the Xilinx toolchain on a Mac? > > I have become spoiled by my Mac Mini, and unpacking my loud PC > just to run place-and-route seems inelegant. > > Tom
Reply by ●April 5, 20052005-04-05
Karl wrote:>Here is a solution for your noise, > >http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=151&code=020 > >The cost could not be the issue if you start using Altera devices :-) > > >that doesn't address the disk drive noise. 15000 rpm SCSI drives are pretty noisy. -- --Ray Andraka, P.E. President, the Andraka Consulting Group, Inc. 401/884-7930 Fax 401/884-7950 email ray@andraka.com http://www.andraka.com "They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin, 1759
Reply by ●April 6, 20052005-04-06
Ray Andraka <ray@andraka.com> writes:> Karl wrote: > > >Here is a solution for your noise, > > > >http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=151&code=020 > > > >The cost could not be the issue if you start using Altera devices :-) > > > > > that doesn't address the disk drive noise. 15000 rpm SCSI drives are > pretty noisy. >Do you need a 15k rpm drive for this sort of work? If you're swapping you need more RAM, surely? The reading of files from the disk has not been a bottleneck in my experience, although I'm not targetting the very biggest devices out there... My Barracuda is almost silent, even in standard mountings - its the PSU fan that annoys me now! Cheers, Martin -- martin.j.thompson@trw.com TRW Conekt, Solihull, UK http://www.trw.com/conekt
Reply by ●April 6, 20052005-04-06
Martin Thompson wrote:>Ray Andraka <ray@andraka.com> writes: > > > >>Karl wrote: >> >> >> >>>Here is a solution for your noise, >>> >>>http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=151&code=020 >>> >>>The cost could not be the issue if you start using Altera devices :-) >>> >>> >>> >>> >>that doesn't address the disk drive noise. 15000 rpm SCSI drives are >>pretty noisy. >> >> >> > >Do you need a 15k rpm drive for this sort of work? If you're swapping >you need more RAM, surely? The reading of files from the disk has not >been a bottleneck in my experience, although I'm not targetting the >very biggest devices out there... > >My Barracuda is almost silent, even in standard mountings - its the >PSU fan that annoys me now! > >Cheers, >Martin > > >I did when I bought that system. file I/O was a bottleneck at the time, at least in simulation and PAR. I haven't evaluated it recently, but will be later this year when I upgrade systems once again. -- --Ray Andraka, P.E. President, the Andraka Consulting Group, Inc. 401/884-7930 Fax 401/884-7950 email ray@andraka.com http://www.andraka.com "They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin, 1759
Reply by ●April 6, 20052005-04-06
In article <1112717515.013523.275140@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>, Karl <karl@chello.nl> wrote:>Here is a solution for your noise, > >http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=151&code=020 > >The cost could not be the issue if you start using Altera devices :-)This is probably both troll-bait and an FAQ, but what's the Altera equivalent of something like the Xess $199 XC3S1000 or $349 Avnet XC4VLX25? (that is, a cheap board with a chip on it as large as the free tools support, and some quick-win peripherals) Counting LUTs, multipliers, memories and general performance claims, the LX25 board is a remarkable capability for the price of three weeks' rent. Chip/Board cost/# LUTs/# flipflops/# multipliers | # 512bit/# 4kbit/# 16kbit/# 512kbit XC4VLX25 $349 21504 21504 48 | 0 0 72 0 XC3S1000 $199 15360 15360 24 | 0 0 24 0 EP1C12 $295 12060 12060 0 | 0 52 0 0 EP2S15 12480 12480 48 | 104 78 0 0 EP1S10 $395 10570 10570 24 | 94 60 0 1 Parallax do a $395 bare-bones board with an EP1S10, and there's the Nios II Eval Board for $295 with Ethernet. I suppose the Stratix 2 series is new enough that it's unfair to expect cheap hobbyist boards already, but Google isn't giving me any useful hit on +EP2S15 +board. Tom
