Less obese Verilog tools

On a sunny day (Sun, 30 Mar 2014 13:09:22 -0400) it happened Phil Hobbs wrote in :

I use iverilog (Icarus Verilog) in Linux always first. Dunno if there is a MS windows version.

But it is 10000000x faster than webwreck. Jus tcommand line, have it parly scripted too. BTW you can run Xi's webpack from command line too in Linux.

I have a much easier methodology for programming FPGAs and CPLDs. His name is Blaine.

Take a look at the Altera CPLDs. They are actually small FPGAs with on-chip flash. The Altera software seems to be slightly less of a horror than the Xilinx software.

--

John Larkin                  Highland Technology Inc 
www.highlandtechnology.com   jlarkin at highlandtechnology dot com    

Precision electronic instrumentation

:

Icarus verilog and gtkwave works just fine on windows

ditto in windows, no different really

and webpack simulator only gets slow when you reach >1000(?) lines of sourc e

and you'll need webpack or similar to get it into hardware eventually

-Lasse

Xilinx was always a bloated ripoff since day one.

Webwreck?

Jamie

On a sunny day (Sun, 30 Mar 2014 14:12:19 -0500) it happened "Maynard A. Philbrook Jr." wrote in :

Xilinx had webpack, alias xst, free for their FPGAs, but that software has the capability to drive you nuts. By the time you learned all its peculiarities (bugs ahum) the next version supplies new ones. So I often write in iverilog, make a test bench in it, and when I am sure the code is right let webwreck have a go at it. Have not used it for at least a year? And that was an old version, so - maybe - its - better - now - but I would not count on that. The Altera quartus free program is much better, at least it does not cause stress.

You should look at Lattice, too. Very interesting parts, even the small ones. The QFN-32 is a nice package, though at only 256 cells. two I2C ports (though one is difficult to get to in such a small part) and I2C programming are nice, too.

Xilinx has been out to lunch for a decade.

When you have chosen a tool check out

It will save you a lot of time.

It's a pity that they have great silicon and awful software to use it. Altera has slightly less great chips and slightly less horrible software.

We just did a Zinq project, with the 7010 chip. FPGA and two nice hard-core ARMs on one chip. It was clumsy getting the ARMs to talk to FPGA registers.

This worked first try, no cuts or jumpers. The microZed helped a lot. There is one glaring error.

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John Larkin                  Highland Technology Inc 
www.highlandtechnology.com   jlarkin at highlandtechnology dot com    

Precision electronic instrumentation

They have great silicon for those with infinitely deep pockets. We used them when I was doing DOD stuff. The software wasn't horrible, then ('07) but it was still bloated (and insisted on installing a new copy of the libraries at every turn).

S1, can't get a button on that ;)

Cheers

Very nice looking board. I don't see anything that stands out as obviously wrong. If it's not a function problem, then it must be a fit or assembly problem.

- One lead of L6 (upper left) might be too close to the front panel and short.

- J5 (lower right) is too close to the right edge of the PCB for easy gripping (if that's necessary for assembly or test).

- It would be nice if all the IC's were pointed in the same direction as U2 (lower right) is backwards. However, that's only for ease of inspection.

- The USR and RST buttons on the MicroZed board are inaccessible, but I suspect they're also not needed for normal operation.

- J5 on the MicroZed board shows only one pin in the connector. What happened to the other 11 pins?

- The Highland Technology logo is all by its lonesome self on the left side of the PCB. The name is at the lower edge of the PCB. That suggests the logo might have been buried under the PCB. There also should be the year after the copyright and name.

However, all that is trivia. If there's a glaring error, I sure don't see it. What did I miss?

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150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
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:

I've been using iverilog a long time ago along with gtkwave on GNU/Linux un fortunately i was unable to generate the bitstream and download it on CPLD(

9500 if i remmeber). The point is what kind of programming tools are you using to generate and d ownload the bitstream in the LCA under GNU/Linux ? AFAIK ngbuild, map... an d promgen are Xilinx specific and free webpack version are running GNU/Linu x for years.

BR, Habib.

Could the error be the through-hole wrong side up connector or whatever in the top left corner (connects to C55-8)?

piglet

No, it's the crystal oscillator. It's designated U10, when it should have been Y1.

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John Larkin                  Highland Technology Inc 
www.highlandtechnology.com   jlarkin at highlandtechnology dot com    

Precision electronic instrumentation

So there's nobody here using an end-to-end open source solution? Xilinx node-locks their free (as-in-beer) licenses, so they wouldn't let me install it on both my main Linux box and my laptop. When I registered another account with a fake name, as one normally does for such instances, they gave me some BS about export controls and wouldn't allow it to install at all.

I suppose I could use a virtual machine on both, and set the emulated MAC addresses to be the same, but what a pain in the tuchis, just to put a few flipflops in a CPLD.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC 
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics 

160 North State Road #203 
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 

hobbs at electrooptical dot net 
http://electrooptical.net

On a sunny day (Mon, 31 Mar 2014 11:37:27 -0400) it happened Phil Hobbs wrote in :

Dont you have a second IP? ;-)

Yes if that is all you want maybe there are other ways, never bothered with CPLDs, cannot help you there. Small Altera FPGA boards go for a few $ on ebay it seems. There is Actel too, flash based FPGAs. I have their development DVDs (or was it CDs). And there is this:

now you have it all, Linux, small computah, and all the porgrammable logic you want. programming suite, I need to try tha tsome day myself.

Probably Xilinx is reacting to the ITAR export regime.

--

John Larkin                  Highland Technology Inc 
www.highlandtechnology.com   jlarkin at highlandtechnology dot com    

Precision electronic instrumentation

Years ago I was friendly enough with the original MicroSim team that they finagled me an "install anywhere" PSpice license, so I could have a copy on my PC _and_ my laptop.

Or, as I do from time-to-time with recalcitrant vendors... "Do you want me to design you in or design you _out_?" Seems to induce some cooperation.

BTW: Is there any software which, when fed an unclocked truth table, will simply spit out the gate equivalency? ...Jim Thompson

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