Xilinx upgrade issues

OK, assume I'm a helpless manager droid and take pity on me.

We have some old Xilinx designs that were done under Foundation, so we have one PC that has Foundation installed, and we do occasional tweaks on it. We used schematic entry, so it's inconvenient to move these designs to ISE; let's not debate that here.

So we just got a letter from Xilinx, telling us our ISE version "Base X" is being discontinued and will now be called "Foundation", which is confusing as all get-out. And the annual fee will jump from $1495 to $2495, presumably because people are buying too many Xilinx chips and they find that to be annoying.

But the same letter says that WebPack 8.1i is free with "no loss of device support or design tools."

Q: Is that true?

Q: is WebPack something we can download and keep, or is it some sort of java thing that Xilinx can change or kill at any time? Longterm ability to maintain designs is crucial to us.

Q: why would anybody pay $2500 a year if the free version is the same?

Thanks,

John

Reply to
John Larkin
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Generally Foundation has always covered all current devices. Webpack covered most of low end Spartan families. Base-X covered a little bit more than Webpack - all the low end Spartans and a few higher end Virtex.

What they have done if the words are correct is moved Webpack a slight notch to cover a few extra devices. There used to be some tools not supplied in Webpack but that difference appears to be gone as here

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John Adair Enterpoint Ltd. - Home of Broaddown2. The Ultimate Spartan-3 Board.

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Reply to
John Adair

John,

Email the hotline directly so we can tell you how we support legacy designs like you describe.

We are there to support you.

Austin

Reply to
Austin Lesea

Thanks, but we're doing fine running the old Foundation stuff once in a while when we have to tweak an old 4000 design or something.

But if we go to WebPack, will we be able to archive the software and run it five years from now? Or is it a java type thing?

And what's the practical difference between the $2500 version and the free stuff?

I sure wish this industry had a standard, portable schematic format. Almost any schematic, pcb or fpga, more than a few years old is a hazard. Not even Actel can modify an old Actel/Orcad design.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

John,

See answer 2 on the FAQ page:

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or

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Austin

-snip-

Reply to
Austin Lesea

Also:

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for all the old "classics"

Austin

Reply to
Austin Lesea

Hate to seem crabby, but there are three "answer 2's" on that page and, so far, none of then answer my questions.

like...

and

John

Reply to
John Larkin

Hi John,

I'll try to be explicit.

Yes.

Basically there was 3 version : - WebPack - BaseX - Foundation

Foundation has all features and devices supported. BaseX a little less than foundation and Webpack a little less than BaseX. Now (since 8.1), every features/devices that was in BaseX is in the WebPack so if the BaseX 7.1 was good enough for you,

The WebPack is a real application and can run/install disconnected. (It's in fact the same application as the complete one but with some files missing afaics).

Just be sure to download the "Full package" (ofter around 300-400 Mb) and not just the "Installer" (around 15 Mb). The latter one will download and install the webpack for you but doesn't contain everything and must connect to Xilinx at install time.

The new WebPack 8.1 supports every features that was supported in BaseX

7.1. But it doesn't have all the feature/devices of the Foundation series (7.1 or 8.1). So instead of three levels of feature set, now there is just 2 ...

Sylvain

Reply to
Sylvain Munaut

Thanks!

Sounds like we should transition from BaseX to WebPack and save the money for the bonus fund.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

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