Yikes, this explains some stuff. I wonder how long it will take to undo the damage. Our latest projects are using Altera parts, purely because the Xilinx software is such a train wreck.
John
Damage? The damage caused by closing a software development lab? Given their software, it's probably a good thing. I just tried downloading their 12.4 software last week. It wouldn't even install. The Avnet folks got me a DVD, so I'll probably try that next week.
I'm using a Xilinx Coolrunner part for a very simple application, mostly because they have package better suited to the application and our SMT line (small and not a CsBGA). ISE WebPack 11.1 works reasonably well but I'm not pushing it very hard (32 flops and a half dozen I/O @ 14.7456MHz clock isn't much of a stretch ;-).
I meant the damage likely *done* by that lab. We'd been speculating how Xininx managed to snarl up their software so thoroughly, and whether they will ever get it fixed. I can't imagine why they'd outsource something this important to France.
Given their
As in "all of last week"?
It wouldn't even install. The Avnet folks got me a DVD,
Yeah, CPLDs don't need a lot of place-and-route effort.
John
I don't know why anyone would do business in France (or most of Europe), given their work rules.
It took two days to download it, at home (I'd be strung up if I did it at work) and another couple of days to try to get it installed. It comes as a .TAR file, which is really useful on a PC.
OTOH, I don't seem much difference in what Altera calls a CPLD (Max-II/V) and an FPGA.
cf. MICRO$~1
Cheers! Rich
On a sunny day (Sat, 22 Jan 2011 18:20:55 -0800) it happened John Larkin wrote in :
I dunno if it still exists, but years ago I used icarus verilog to write the code. Very fast, open source, and then when I had it all working I would feed it into X's webwreck. At least I then knew my code was right, even if webwreck disagreed. But it as been years now... iverilog was a really nice program.
snipped-for-privacy@att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz:
If the State owns the bigger electronics & defence companies ad it is a chauvinist (french world...) nation, the best way to sell them stuff is to have a non purely commercial operation there.
What is a "non purely commercial operation"? Does this pay for the costs they're going to incur when closing the operation down?
code.
You can also feed the source into ModelSim to check the correctness. The ModelSim compiler has found several errors that ISE (full boat) didn't.
snipped-for-privacy@att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz:
A factory or an R&D center.
Well, given that Europe accounts for 20% of their revenues and North America for 32%, probably wthey could have laid off somebody in the US.
Says someone from a country where unions are (almost) mandatory... Talk about work rules. Still, the French are not known for excellent engineering. Eiffel has been dead for a long time.
-- Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply indicates you are not using the right tools... nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.) --------------------------------------------------------------
.
the code.
he
=A0
of course you'll need a simulator to verify your design be it icarus, isim, modelsim, vcs or what ever, and it might warn you of constructs that are not per their interpretation of the verilog/vhdl spec. but it is just a simulator so will also happily accept behavioral constructs that cannot possible be implemented in the fpga so it goes both ways you need to know what you are doing
Not to excuse Xilinx who does seem to add features before fixing bugs, but I'm sure some compilers/asemblers/linkers were also rather temperamental when they were at the age fpga are tools today
-Lasse
On a sunny day (Sun, 23 Jan 2011 19:52:33 GMT) it happened snipped-for-privacy@puntnl.niks (Nico Coesel) wrote in :
TGV (high speed trains) are rather good, and I have had a Peugeot and a Renault car. With the cars corrosion was the biggest problem. But that always is a problem here, I had the same problem with Nissan. Also the French have Airbus - the A380, and the satellite Ariane launchers, although some of all that is also with technology from Germany and other countries. I do not think French engineering is different in quality than US, on the contrary perhaps, given the NASA shuttle delays.
A damned lie, except, perhaps, WRT government jobs. Twenty two states are "right to work" states, where one cannot be forced to join a union even though it is a "union shop". Fewer than one in twelve US private sector jobs are unionized (OTOH, more than one three government workers are - a real problem). Exceedingly few high-tech (engineering) jobs are union.
But why should we expect other than lies from a Europeon leftist loon.
code.
That's the point. The ModelSim compiler does a much better job of checking for correctness than the ISE synthesizer. It gives better diagnostics, too. ...well, once you understand them.
I've never written a "legal" VHDL construct that wasn't possible to implement. Some it didn't like, at all, but it would implement it (SR latches come to mind).
Is that your excuse for Windows, too? ...hasn't been around long enough?
Thank you Phil for your great contribution to SED.
Do YOU have a fan club like Archie's?
ks
, given
enault car.
s,
countries.
Look at the Concord. It is damn hard to make an airframe with a good safety record with so few units produced.
Glad to know I'm not the only one who thought the first response to that article:
"Xilinx sell hardware, software especially high level tools is secondary."
...was a bit clueless!
And the bitstream structure is secret, so third parties can't supply end-to-end software, as far as I'm aware. I bet some small IP house could do a better job.
John
The Concorde was a cooperation between the British and the French.
-- Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply indicates you are not using the right tools... nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.) --------------------------------------------------------------
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