AoE III price lowered another $10

Sorry, you can't use the Zynq without the tools, can you? So overall, which is it, good or crap?

Really? You think asking about your previous statements is being nasty? Clearly you missed the flaws you so bitterly complain about in the software. All you had to do was ask in the FPGA group and many there could have given you insight to their experiences.

You have issues of connecting the FPGA to software such that a few ns count? That is hard to picture.

Why does that matter? Software is *very* slow compared to the FPGA. Maybe your SW/FPGA partition was not done very well. Push a bit more into the FPGA and use SPI for a SW interface. Well, I'm exaggerating, but you get the point.

Is that the Zynq? Only 600 MHz? That's pretty bad by today's metrics for ARM CPUs. I don't recall the details on the stuff you designed with the Zed, but I seem to recall that one processor was running Linux and the other was running real time stuff with no OS. I am pretty sure you could easily do that with an external CPU running Linux and nearly any soft core in the FPGA. There are tons of them to choose from and I'm willing to bet that some are as effective as a 600 MHz ARM as doing the real time stuff, not the ARM's forte. Check out the J1 sometime. I wish I had designed it, mine was simpler, but not quite as quick.

You can buy lots and lots of ARM SBC, beagle board, rpi and many others I haven't had time to learn about. These aren't toys, they work and are used widely. All you would need to do is to add the FPGA as a daughter board or more likely, since you usually have special I/O circuitry add the CPU board to your board. In fact, isn't that what you did with the Zed? So the only difference is moving the FPGA to the mainboard, off of the CPU.

*You* were the guy who said you couldn't or wouldn't design a CPU with an FPGA on a board. But you didn't need to do that. You only needed to design the FPGA on your board. Now you are complaining that the SOC tools really suck. Everything new from Xilinx sucks pretty well.

Here is something that might put it in perspective. Over 10 years ago I was told that Xilinx spends more money writing software than they do designing the hardware. I am certain that hasn't changed. So really FPGA companies are just software companies that create demand for their products by selling hardware. Lol

How sensitive are they as analog comparators for very low levels? If an AC signal were coupled to one input and both inputs were DC coupled through a high value resistor, would a sub-millivolt signal make it into the digital? I keep wanting to try this but just haven't made myself drag out the stuff to do it with.

--

Rick

Actually that isn't true. The front end can be supplied by many vendors. The FPGA company may only give you a choice of one for the free tools, but there are several others. At least there were. Did they all go away?

I'm not sure why anyone would need "tight" integration if they are going to run Linux. If you just need a fast processor there are a number of soft cores that can run pretty fast. Being much simpler you can use a number of them rather than just one or two. I think John said the Zynq ARM is only 600 MHz, which is not very fast for an ARM and clearly not all that much faster than a soft core. Heck, the ARM has to work from external memory... I'm just sayin'

--

Rick

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How does that negate my point? 

Shit happens.  

It was a tragedy, certainly, but one picks up the pieces, finds out 
what went wrong, fixes it, and goes on with life. 

Your way would have everyone in sackcloth forever, heads on pikes, 
and any hope of a recovery completely gutted. 

John Fields

--
Then what are your attempts at control all about? 

John Fields

On Thu, 04 Jun 2015 17:15:47 -0400, rickman wrote: . . .

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Insightful, decisive. 
Very nice!  

John Fields

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The reason you can't understand it is because you've patterned 
yourself to be like a woman from the earliest days of your 
childhood. 

Being small, and being surrounded by a mother and sisters who no 
doubt had you figured out from day one, you subconsciously opted for 
"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em", were deferent to them, and took 
on their ways during your formative years. 

Fast forward to the present, and you equate disliking you to 
disliking a woman, with your narcissism expanding that to a dislike 
of _all_ women since, after all, if someone didn't like you, why on 
Earth would they like any other woman? 

John Fields

--
Awww...  

Poor baby got her feathers ruffled by a breath of fresh air?

--
Hmmm... 

I wondered how long it would be until the goons started showing up.

John.

WTF are you on about?

--

John Devereux

On Fri, 05 Jun 2015 12:04:34 +0100, John Devereux Gave us:

If you actually knew how to read the goddamned post, dipshit, you would have noted where JL stated that we all hate women..

Good job of being oblivious to the entire post content, idiot.

Two of my guys tried to get the VHDL to import the filter coefficients into a ROM, from a text file generated by a Python program. Altera does that without hassle. They couldn't get it to work with Vivado. No help from Xilinx or the distributor. They wound up reformatting it and pasting it in as VHDL source. Not the end of the world, just a waste of time. Like I said, Xilinx designs take about twice as long as Alteras.

Maybe there is some independent consultancy that will provide Xilinx support for a fee, since Xilinx won't. We might go for that. We wouldn't want to subcontract the entire FPGA design project. Designs are interactive enough that the PCB layout, embedded code, and the FPGA design work a lot better if all the players are in one place.

--

John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
picosecond timing   laser drivers and controllers 

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com 
http://www.highlandtechnology.com

There are a number of consultants who are very good with Xilinx tools. One I have worked with is Bottom Line Technologies... or I should say

*almost* worked with. They wanted me to come on board but we didn't find a customer in my area at that time. Later when he had customers that I would support he felt my existing business was a conflict. Ed McCauley is pretty top notch. You can email him directly at snipped-for-privacy@bltinc.com Tell him you spoke to me, Rick Collins and called him anyway, lol.

When you say Xilinx was no help, did you open a support ticket with them? They used to be ok, but you had to get past the first line of defense. Then you could talk to someone who actually knew something, maybe not a real expert, but someone who should be able to get you past this. I can't imagine the tools are so bad it literally can't import filter coefficients into a LUT. They were doing that a decade ago.

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Rick

My goal was not to give John F. fuel to abuse you. I simply don't know how to get the ideas across to you that you simply need to accept that you don't already understand FPGA development. So I was being brutally honest. If that is too much for you, I'm sorry. But you really don't show any sign of understanding or maybe it is a willingness to accept that your approach to FPGA development is not very good.

I hope you read my other post and contact BLT or one of the other many consultants Xilinx partners with. I'm sure they can spend a week or two with your people and help them over the humps.

--

Rick

It doesn't take you long to show that you're DimBulb class, no.

On Sat, 06 Jun 2015 00:01:10 -0400, krw Gave us:

-

My boogers have more class than a punk like you.

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You wouldn't know class if it bit you on the ass.

You really don't need to give *more* supporting evidence, DimBulb. Everyone here's got it.

I recognize that you and DimBulb are joined at the hip. Two goons in a pod.

On Sat, 06 Jun 2015 08:12:53 -0400, krw Gave us:

You are so stupid that you make up contractions and think they are valid.