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Xilinx WebPack and command line

I wonder if there is a posibility to do Xilinx fpga synthesis and implementation from command line on WindowsXP platform to speed up the process. Xilinx web site mentioned something, that it's only availabe for CPLDs. XESS have an app note on how to use Make file to script and automate build process. It needs fe_shell utility, but I don't think it comes with WebPack edition.

Reply to
Remis Norvilis
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I believe that fe_shell is some synthesis scripting language for FPGA Express. Since FPGA Express does not come bundled with ISE Foundation anymore, I don't think that is something that you want to use. Xilinx Synthesis Tool (XST), which comes bundled with Webpack, has a method that allows command line invocation. Type xst -help from a command line prompt for more information.

-Newman

Reply to
Newman

We have a more recent document that shows how to use makefiles with WebPACK or ISE. It does not need fe_shell. You can see it here:

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Reply to
devb

Thanks for replys. Those of you that used command line built, is there a build speed improvement and how significant?

Reply to
Remis Norvilis

Maybe that works with ISE 6.x with "projectfile.prj" as ascii file...

any suggest to make it to run with ISE 7.x with "projectfile.ise" as binary unknown (for me) format file ?

Sandro

Reply to
Sandro

NONO

the .PRJ files are stil plain ascii, no problems with them at all, in 7.1 the .NPL files are no .ISE and binary

there should be no problems running ise tools from commandline (but i havent used webpack for looooong time)

antti

Reply to
Antti Lukats

Sandro:

The makefiles only use the .prj and .xst files to get information about the project and the synthesis options. These are both ASCII in 6.x. So the makefiles will work if these are still ASCII in 7.x.

The makefiles don't use anything in the .npl file so they shouldn't be affected by the switch to .ise binary files in 7.x.

Reply to
devb

Hi Remis,

I doubt that running the Xilinx software from command line is going to speed up the compilation of your design (Perhaps, buying a faster computer is going to solve that problem.), but it can still be done for FPGAs in ISE WebPACK contrary to what Xilinx is saying. Assuming that you are using ISE WebPACK 7.1i, download the following files.

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The above two documents explain the arguments for the command line version of the Xilinx software. For an example of a sample batch file script, check out page 13 (or 14) of the following PDF file.

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The above document itself is several years old, but Xilinx software doesn't change that much from version of version, so the sample batch file script should even work with 7.1i. From there, make changes to meet to needs. Next, make sure that your XILINX environmental variable is pointing to your ISE WebPACK install path. (i.e., XILINX=d:\Xilinx) I hope it works.

Kevin Brace

Remis Norvilis wrote:

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Reply to
Kevin Brace

thanks a lot... I'll try it!

Sandro

Reply to
Sandro

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