Hi, I have just started out with some VHDL in school and would like to have something at home to play with. I'm not sure of CPLD vs FPGA for my use, but CPLD feel more suited for smaller projects I guess. My question is how Linux is supported as developmentplatform? (I have linux on my computers at home and want to be able to us them as hostsystem, at school we use some older version of a program called warp) I have looked at some of Xilinks and Alteras homepages and it seams that they have software for Linux. But it would be good to hear from someone with experince how the different software packages work? (if some company have better software than other, or someones software is better for the Linux platform) I'm just not sure where to start and some genereal tips on Linux and CPLD/FPGAs would also be good to hear... :) Regards, Robert
CPLD/FPGA with Linux
Started by ●October 22, 2009
Reply by ●October 22, 20092009-10-22
Scorpiion <Robert.nr1@gmail.com> wrote:> Hi, I have just started out with some VHDL in school and would like to have > something at home to play with. I'm not sure of CPLD vs FPGA for my use, > but CPLD feel more suited for smaller projects I guess. My question is how > Linux is supported as developmentplatform? (I have linux on my computers at > home and want to be able to us them as hostsystem, at school we use some > older version of a program called warp)> I have looked at some of Xilinks and Alteras homepages and it seams that > they have software for Linux. But it would be good to hear from someone > with experince how the different software packages work? (if some company > have better software than other, or someones software is better for the > Linux platform)> I'm just not sure where to start and some genereal tips on Linux and > CPLD/FPGAs would also be good to hear... :)If you really want to learn, use CPLDs. They have few resources and few kind of resources, and so to implement something you soon hit their size limit with deficiencies of your coding and solution approach and to squeeze your project in the CPLD, you need to learn a lot. If you want to implement bigger things, FPGA soon gets easier and cheaper. You can even learn a much more with them, have they have zillions of different resources to learn and understand. Other things to consider: - Number of supply voltages needed(One for XC95 versus 2 for XC2C/XC3SA versus 3 for other XC3S) - Voltage tolerance needed (only XC95XV is (limited ) 5-Volt tolerant - Is the toolchain available for linux. At what costs. To my knowledge, Altera doesn't offer a free Linx version. - Size of your project: If you need more than about 140 registers, XC3SA with SPI Flash soon gets to similar costs to a decent sized CPLD. - Where do go get help. If you decide for e,g. FPGA but for friends use CPLD, help is harder to get. Bye -- Uwe Bonnes bon@elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de Institut fuer Kernphysik Schlossgartenstrasse 9 64289 Darmstadt --------- Tel. 06151 162516 -------- Fax. 06151 164321 ----------
Reply by ●October 22, 20092009-10-22
I use the Xilinx ISE WebPack under Linux for CPLD and FPGA work, although I have my own hardware solutions for programming the physical devices.
Reply by ●October 22, 20092009-10-22
Scorpiion wrote:> Hi, I have just started out with some VHDL in school and would like to have > something at home to play with. I'm not sure of CPLD vs FPGA for my use, > but CPLD feel more suited for smaller projects I guess. My question is how > Linux is supported as developmentplatform? (I have linux on my computers at > home and want to be able to us them as hostsystem, at school we use some > older version of a program called warp)webpack ISE 10.1 works under Fedora 8 and 11 (still checking that out). For the free version you get the 32 bit version. It will work on a 64 bit system. I do that already. To use 64 bit version of webpack you need to pay for licenses etc. You may have to pay for the full version to use the larger/newer fpga's. The ISIM simulator does work under linux. I have no knowledge of VHDL simulators for linux. The officially supported o/s is RHEL and I think vista. Support for the design process I don't know. Andy> > I have looked at some of Xilinks and Alteras homepages and it seams that > they have software for Linux. But it would be good to hear from someone > with experince how the different software packages work? (if some company > have better software than other, or someones software is better for the > Linux platform) > > I'm just not sure where to start and some genereal tips on Linux and > CPLD/FPGAs would also be good to hear... :) > > Regards, Robert > >
Reply by ●October 22, 20092009-10-22
A very good source for students is: http://www.digilentinc.com/ If you choose Xilinx Webpack for Linux (free download), and then you can buy the small Spartan 3E board: http://www.xilinx.com/tools/webpack.htm (download webpack) and http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?NavPath=2,719,721&Prod=BASYS2 (3E pcb) which is commonly used at many universities and schools (so there is a lot of stuff on the web sites of universities and schools). Programming tools (the JTAG programming cable) used with Linux are always a bit tough to get to work (just read the posts on the subject) as support of USB isn't as trivial as it is with 'Windoze.' Austin
Reply by ●October 23, 20092009-10-23
"Andy Botterill" <andy@plymouth2.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:4ae0966d$0$17520$bed64819@gradwell.net...> Scorpiion wrote:..> > The ISIM simulator does work under linux. > > I have no knowledge of VHDL simulators for linux. >It is called Modelsim DE (just released) The good news is that it includes PSL/SVA so assertions are no longer reserved for the big boys :-) Hans www.ht-lab.com> The officially supported o/s is RHEL and I think vista. > > Support for the design process I don't know. Andy >> >> I have looked at some of Xilinks and Alteras homepages and it seams that >> they have software for Linux. But it would be good to hear from someone >> with experince how the different software packages work? (if some company >> have better software than other, or someones software is better for the >> Linux platform) >> >> I'm just not sure where to start and some genereal tips on Linux and >> CPLD/FPGAs would also be good to hear... :) >> >> Regards, Robert >>
Reply by ●October 23, 20092009-10-23
Le Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:42:15 -0700, austin a écrit :> Programming tools (the JTAG programming cable) used with Linux are > always a bit tough to get to work (just read the posts on the subject) > as support of USB isn't as trivial as it is with 'Windoze.'Are you sure of that ? Xilinx windrv ported to linux is a nightmare. I'm using this library <http://www.rmdir.de/~michael/xilinx/> fairly support cable III, cableIV and this one http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/ Detail.cfm?NavPath=2,395,716&Prod=XUP-USB-JTAG i'm using for the moment. You can read the XAPP502 if you want to deeply embed programming CPLD/ FPGA. As an example PROGRAM, CCLK, DIN, INIT, DONE signals are quite easily driven by a microcontroller to do the job with a .bit or .rbt file. After a discussion with M. Delorie in this very ng, i found XAPP058 a bit complicated for my needs ... Habib
Reply by ●October 23, 20092009-10-23
austin <austin@xilinx.com> wrote:> Programming tools (the JTAG programming cable) used with Linux are > always a bit tough to get to work (just read the posts on the subject) > as support of USB isn't as trivial as it is with 'Windoze.'Xc3sprog at sourceforge is also supposed to work out of the box for many cable and devices. I am interessted in cases where it doesn't. -- Uwe Bonnes bon@elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de Institut fuer Kernphysik Schlossgartenstrasse 9 64289 Darmstadt --------- Tel. 06151 162516 -------- Fax. 06151 164321 ----------
Reply by ●October 23, 20092009-10-23
Uwe Bonnes <bon@elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de> wrote:>- Voltage tolerance needed (only XC95XV is (limited ) 5-Volt tolerantXilinx's Spartan 2 (not 2E!) is also 5V tolerant. Same goes for older Virtex devices. -- Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply indicates you are not using the right tools... "If it doesn't fit, use a bigger hammer!" --------------------------------------------------------------
Reply by ●October 24, 20092009-10-24
"Scorpiion" <Robert.nr1@gmail.com> writes:> I have looked at some of Xilinks and Alteras homepages and it seams that > they have software for Linux. But it would be good to hear from someone > with experince how the different software packages work?I've used Xilinx ISE and EDK in Linux a lot, Modelsim too (the expensive Modelsim SE usually). They work just fine, since version 9.1 as I recall. Previous versions were a little bad in the GUI department, since that was done with some kind of converter tool. I haven't really used a Xilinx cable driver in Linux since 2006. Worked fine then, but the labs I've been in since then have had Windows machines.> (if some company have better software than other, or someones > software is better for the Linux platform)You may want to look at the free offerings from Lattice and Actel too, as far as I know they provide free Modelsim and Synplify. Not sure if they provide it for a student though. I don't know what the story is with Altera. I vaguely remember finding, downloading and running their free Web Edition for Linux last spring, but I can't find it now.
