Virtex-5 Webpack?

Hello! For a long time my lab purchased the lower-cost ISE Base-X kit, which was recently discontinued and its functionality was rolled into WebPack (which is available for free!) Base-X always seemed to contain support for the two smallest of Xilinx's high-end devices. The latest WebPack, however, does not contain support for the V5s. Is there a plan to have V5 support in WebPack in the future?

I know the standard Xilinx line on this is "If you're doing high-end development, ISE tools are not going to be a big part of your cost" but in our environment where we have a bunch of students doing development on prototype boards, the license costs can add up quickly.

Thanks, ...Eric

Reply to
jonas
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Why not using Altera then? AFAIK the web edition of Quartus supports all Altera FPGAs.

The only problem is when you use Linux: For Windows, Quartus is free, but for Linux you have to pay for it, which makes development for me a bit harder at work, because I'm using Linux for developing for an embedded system and in parallel I need a second computer for synthesizing for the FPGA on this system. Would be much better if Xilinx and Altera would provide all development software for free for both platforms, maybe then they would even sell more chips.

--
Frank Buss, fb@frank-buss.de
http://www.frank-buss.de, http://www.it4-systems.de
Reply to
Frank Buss

Nope. The web edition only supports the smallest Stratix I & II parts.

Slurp

Reply to
Slurp

"Slurp" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:4555fdd2$0$8737$ snipped-for-privacy@ptn-nntp-reader02.plus.net...

well altera webedition *DOES* support at least one part of each high end family WebPack does *NOT* support V-5 at all

Antti

Reply to
Antti Lukats

Yea, I'm in the same boat -- my uClinux dev tools all run under linux, and right now all the xilinx tools run really well on the same machine. Plus, we've invested a lot of time and energy working with the xilinx toolchain and hardware -- the thought of switching is somewhat scary! ...Eric

Reply to
jonas

If you're a university environment, contact Xilinx about their University Program. While you might not get hotline support, you can get significantly greater tool access without paying full commercial license costs. The FPGA vendors *are* interested in getting new FPGA designers into the field with solid tool experience. Preferably their tools.

Reply to
John_H

Not sure what you're trying to do in your labs... I know when I was in undergrad we certainly never got to anything so complicated in a single semester that we couldn't have done in a V4.... From your message, I can't tell if you already have V5 hardware or not... But, if not, digilent makes what looks like a pretty powerful eval board based on a V4 FX12 chip - it sells for only $299 - with is pretty good, considering the Spartan 3E board is 150! There's also a virtex2 board that has an academic price of 299 (vs. a commerical price of over a grand)... but the virtex2's are gettin to be pretty outdated it seems.

But yea... I'd be willing to bet the licensing for ISE through the university program is pretty reasonably priced. At least if xilinx is smart it is, I know that when I'm comparing equivalent xilinx/altera chips I look at which tools I know already.

John_H wrote:

Reply to
Paul

My name is Bud Kelly and I am the Area Channel Manager for Altera based here in Chelmsford. We have a very comprehensive University Program, including software and boards, that I would be happy to discuss with you. I can be reached at snipped-for-privacy@altera.com.

snipped-for-privacy@mit.edu wrote:

Reply to
bkelly

Bud,

Thanks for letting us know that Altera has a university program, too.

As for newer devices, ask your professor to contact the XUP program, and then request what you would like. We provide full versions of the software to Universities if they have a project that is suitable.

It may be that your institution already has what you need.

As a student, however, we can not just ship you anything you ask for, as we first need your academic representative to validate your requests.

Our Xilinx Research group also sponsors student projects, reseach, and thesis (as appropriate). Please consider Xilinx for summer internships, as well (I always hire one or two, and it is not only summertime). You may email your resume directly to me. I will try to get it to the groups that may have requirements.

Aust> My name is Bud Kelly and I am the Area Channel Manager for Altera based

Reply to
Austin

Nothing like the prospect of loosing the designs to Altera, to snap Xilinx out of Doze mode :)

Problem is, Austin, that for every prospect that asks in this NG, probably 99 others simply made the decision based on available tools.

[Some students might actually want to do homework, aka work at home?]

Others might be using smaller chips, but just want to build to V5, as a training example - viz: "So, How much better IS this V5? "...

To me, Xilinx can chop V5 out of webpack, and mull the consequences.

-jg

Reply to
Jim Granville

Jim,

Dozing? Hardly.

I am unsure where that poster posted, as the thread just magically appeared with the Altera reply.

As for students, we like to work with their professors, as trying to work with individual students is just not very smart. As someone who has been both a student, and a professor, I have some empathy for each of them.

Austin

Reply to
Austin

My news reader shows the OP fine, as 12/11/2006 4:57 a.m. ? So sorry, no, this is not an Altera-sponsored ploy...

-jg

Reply to
Jim Granville

OK,

I missed the post on 12/11/2006.

My apologies to the student at MIT.

As I have stated before, I do answer personal emails.

And, they are perfectly free to use anyone's components. I would rather they learn about Xilinx PLDs, but learning a competitor's PLD is just fine with me, too.

Austin

Reply to
Austin

I complained about this a long time ago to which Austin said "I don't see the problem at all".

Since then I've been working on a project targeting a Cyclone and a Spartan 3E in parallel and now I don't think I'll ever care about V5, but just wait for Stratix-III. In my experience (everything fully up to date),

- ISE is 5-10X *SLOWER* than Quartus II (seriously, I can post details),

- ISE a lot less stable than Quartus,

- Spartan 3E are 10-15% slower than Cyclones,

- (Subjective) ISE is a lot clunky to use (fx. properties are spread all over the place), and finally

- the free Quartus supports a least one device from every family.

I only regret that there aren't as many excellent development boards for Altera as there are for Xilinx.

Tommy PS: My obsession with free tools is not because I'm a cheap-skate; it has to do with avoiding lock-in and the value of a design that can be further developped by others for minimal cost.

Reply to
Tommy Thorn

Hi Thommy

thanks for good example - hope Xilinx will finally listen!

I can only add that dropping V5 from WebPack can be considered as disappointing loyalty of te Xilinx BaseX customer - that is people who did count on entry level paid xilinx tool to support at least one device of the each family (all those who have ever had Base-X license) those customer are now forced to obtain full version - what means

2.5 times more expenses per year. Or they can switch to Altera. What is likely to happen.

hihi - I just recalled what I am getting for Christmas - I had one wish free, and I wished an Stratix development board, and guess what it is already purchased for me and possible already in transit.

Antti

Reply to
Antti Lukats

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