(I start a new thread, so maybe there will be more answers.)
I wrote (in thread "Differences between Xilinx ISE Foundation and WebPACK"):
Here follows more newbie-questions. >
> As the Spartan-3 Starter Kit comes with only sixty > days evaluation version of "ISE Foundation", and > not time-limited version of "ISE WebPACK", I listed > their differences from >formatting link>
> and realized that WebPACK is lacking at least > these features that come with the Foundation: >
> CORE Generator System > Modular Design > FPGA Editor with Probe > SMARTModels for PowerPC and RocketIO. >
> What are these, and how essential they are > if I (eventually/immediately) want to do my own designs?
At least on Xilinx DS099 Spartan-3 Complete data sheet:
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in "CLB Overview" it mentions both "FPGA Editor" (on page 10), and later, on page 13: "Other memory functions - e.g., FIFO's data path width conversion, ROM, etc. - are readily available using the CORE Generator system, part of the Xilinx development software." I guess the latter is some kind of a macro library, but the former, the "FPGA Editor" seems to be more important. As it is lacking from WebPACK, does this mean that I cannot specify in my designs with an explicit control how everything is done down at CLB-level?(But instead, write just VHDL or Verilog code, and hope that some other part of the development system "compiles" it sensibly.)
Also, does WebPACK support both VHDL and Verilog > fully?
> Anybody knows if there there plans to port it (WebPACK) > to Linux or other Unix-systems, and when? > (And similar question for Altera's Quartus-II software.)
Also, I would like to know whether the free version of Altera's Quartus-II contain similar subsystems: "FPGA Editor", "CORE generator", "Modular design", etc. of Xilinx ISE Foundation that have been excluded from ISE WebPACK, or is it likewisely stripped version?
Please have patience with my questions, I come from the software world...
Yours,
Antti Karttunen