Very poor Xilinx experience

I'm hoping someone at Xilinx reads this, because I can't find any other way to get through to anyone to help me.

Short version: I've bought an SP605 board, it looks as though it's broken - there's no video output from the built-in-self-test program. I have to complete a webcase to get an RMA, and the -ing useless Xilinx mailing-list software won't let me send any information to my webcase consultant.

The details of the problem, along with screenshots, are at

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Having had to re-set my email address from my personal address to my corporate address (why should I need to do this to get an RMA ?), it seems I can no longer log into the webcase system, so I can't append any pertinent information to the case, and my case consultant seems to be trying to get me to set DIP switches / set header pins according to the "SP605 Evaluation Kit" hardware setup guide, which is directly contradicting the advice in my "Spartan-6 FPGA Embedded Kit" hardware setup guide pamphlet that came with the kit.

I have repeatedly (4 times now) tried to send mail asking for clarification on this, and every damned time, the mailing software rejects my email as being badly formed. My case consultant probably thinks it's all sorted out, and there's no way for me to tell him I'm just getting frustrated with the lack of response! There's no Xilinx forum for "help, the support system is broken", and I got no traction in the 'Xilinx boards and kits' forum (see the above link).

So, guys, what the hell is going on ? I hate to resort to using a public forum to detail individual problems, but I can't think of anywhere else to go! If anyone at Xilinx reads this, the webcase number is 915564, and I would dearly like to get some progress on it. The board is just sitting here, and I don't want to change the DIP switches and possibly break it...

Simon.

Reply to
Simon
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Perhaps Xilinx wants you to design in Altera parts.

--
Tim Wescott
Control system and signal processing consulting
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Reply to
Tim Wescott

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It certainly seems that way. To Xilinx, I'm small potatoes, not even on the radar, but to a hobbyist like me, dropping $2k on a board, add- on modules, and PC to host the Xilinx software (I only had Macs, and parallels doesn't work with the fpga programming cable under Linux) only happens every two to three years. It's seriously disappointing to then get what appears to be broken hardware and encounter an impenetrable wall around the company...

Simon.

Reply to
Simon

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Support is a two-way street and resolution comes a lot faster with good communication and using the right channels. The Xilinx forums are a user community driven forums and while myself and other Xilinx employees do read and respond to posts it is not an official support channel. The same goes for comp.arch.fpga.

You did use an official support channel by opening a WebCase on 4/1 at

12:11am and recieved a response when a US support engineer arrived in the morning and had time to look at your initial comments and to route the case to an appropriate support engineer who responded to you within 12 hours of opening the case.

Some of the confusion is due to a lack of specifics from you. Your comments in the case notes include generic references to the "SP605 evaluation kit", "Spartan-6 fpga embedded kit" and "hardware and demonstration setup guide". The SP605 is sold in a several different variations including:

EK-S6-SP605-G - Base Evaluation Kit DK-S6-EMBD-G - Embedded Evaluation Kit DK-S6-CONN-G - Connectivity Kit

Each of these have different demonstration/reference designs and setup instructions. Providing the exact kit and doc number of the material that you are using will eliminate confusion and allow the support engineer to be able to resolve your problem faster. Since you are using an official support channel and the case is still open you should continue with that path to resolve your problem.

BTW: Changing a DIP switch would not harm a board.

Regards,

Ed McGettigan

-- Xilinx Inc

Reply to
Ed McGettigan

Indeed it does. I would have *loved* to have actually continued to use my web-case to talk to Xilinx's support-engineer and resolved the issue. BUT I CAN'T. I don't know how to make this any clearer. There is no communication channel open to me other than

- (a) spamming a Xilinx forum that doesn't cater for this type of issue (I read the informative types of things to post in each of the Xilinx forums, the closest seemed to be general technical support, but this isn't a technical issue), or

- (b) Going "public" in an open forum.

In case it's still not clear:

- I *cannot* log into the web-case system. My username/password no longer works - I *cannot* send email replies to my case-officer / xilinx support - the mailing system refuses to accept my response, and gives no direction as to how to format the email correctly. From memory the last email back from it said something like 'CASE_ID: xxxxxxx is insufficient information to resolve the object'.

*how* ? Exactly ?

Your comments are also misleading at best. I was *quoting* the titles at the top of the two documents in order to distinguish them. Further, I don't believe there was *any* confusion over the board I had bought, since the web-case engineer said (again, from memory) "I cannot find the document you are referring to on the embedded-kit page, but I found this other document on the evaluation kit page, why don't you try setting the DIP switches / jumpers like it says in this other document I found".

To further clarify matters, I had sent a snapshot of the front of the document I had in front of me (the one that your support engineer couldn't find) as well as a snapshot of the DIP-switch settings instructions within that guide.

More misleading characterization: you mention the 12-hour response from the engineer (and you know what, I was impressed by that) but you fail to mention the subsequent 3-day impenetrable silence.

[sarcasm] Right. Never. Of course. I've *never* come across a board where a DIP switch or header is responsible for setting a voltage, say. And there's *never* any possibility of shorting out anything by putting jumpers across pin headers. [/sarcasm]

If you had read the two documents that I was disputing the difference between, you'd have seen that there are directly-contradicting instructions for both DIP switches *and* pin-headers. It's not exactly unknown to have to set *groups* of headers just-so in order to get a board to work, and having to use *either* this-set-of-headers *or* that-set-of-headers, with any-mixture-of-this-set-of-headers-and-that- set-of-headers being potentially dangerous to the board. In any event, I don't think it's an unreasonable question to ask! Xilinx' own FMC XM-105 board has a set of voltage headers that control another set of headers, for example.

When the document that ships with your kit is saying 'do X' and the support engineer can't find that document, but finds another one that's vaguely related that says 'don't do X, do Y', I think it's perfectly reasonable to question that support-engineer's advice (my last response was along the lines of 'are you sure' ? and I *think* that one made it through the user-hostile email manager).

--
Addendum: I've just been 'phoned by a Xilinx support manager. In
contrast to Ed's passive-aggressive tone above, the support manager
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Reply to
Simon

(snip)

It would certainly be poor design if it did, but if it switched some pins to outputs, and they were also driven from off the board, that could harm them (or the other board components).

But that would not be usual for a system design.

I normally don't worry that dip switches will harm hardware.

-- glen

Reply to
glen herrmannsfeldt

The few Xilinx boards that I've gotten have been good, but in my experience the quality of eval boards is all over the map. Some are very, very good, and some are very, very bad. I'm quite cynical about this, which leads me to believe that the attitude in Marketing and Accounting at the companies where the designs are consistently good is "if we do well, next year we will have more sales and make more $$$", and at the companies where designs are spotty or consistently bad it is "this eval board stuff is a bunch of hoo-ha and an expense. Every time we ship one we lose $; let's minimize the loss".

So "it would be a poor design if it did", and "so we can assume that it doesn't" are phrases that do not -- generally -- belong together in the same sentence.

--
My liberal friends think I'm a conservative kook.
My conservative friends think I'm a liberal kook.
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Reply to
Tim Wescott

(snip regarding jumper settings and the cause of board failure)

I haven't tried enough boards to say.

Well, I would make this statement more generally than just FPGA evaluation boards, but for boards in general. Now, there are some the use DIP switches or jumpers to select supply voltages for processors, and in that case one could damage a board by setting them wrong. Usually, though, you would know that was the purpose for those switches.

-- glen

Reply to
glen herrmannsfeldt

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Well, in this case neither hardware setup guide explains what the jumpers do, the physical document I have that came with the kit (the "Spartan-6 FPGA Embedded Kit" hardware setup guide) just says "ensure that Jumper J60 is connected as shown, J60 should have jumper on 1-2" in (as well as a load of other jumpers / DIP switch settings, equally without explanation.

However, in the "SP605 Evaluation kit" hardware setup guide which was what my webcase support engineer was suggesting I use, it says "The following headers should not have any Jumpers installed: J45, J47, J9, J58, J9, J13, J10, J60, J49, and J48." (along with different DIP switch settings).

Note the conflict for J60. I didn't check what the as-shipped settings for the others were.

I've just tried re-formatting the flash card and re-copying the software over (which worked for some other people) but it didn't help me - now I just see a blank screen, and the ethernet doesn't respond to ping/HTTP either (that used to work, at least). I've put another request for clarification into the web-case, and we'll see how it goes.

Simon

Reply to
Simon

hhehe, that's what the South Korea folks and the Japanese are praying now

Kim Jung Il will flip the switch soon sometime this month, from his tomb

Reply to
Mawa_fugo

I have a SP605 board and although I havent used the demos that come with it I have found it to work fine. Why dont you just create a simple FPGA design that sends a test pattern out of the video port. Not very hard to do, and it will prove that the FPGA + video works.

Jon

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Reply to
maxascent

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