Is the Xilinx EDK free?

I am a hobbyist, actually an embedded software engineer trying to learn about verilog and FPGAs, and would like some advice.

I'm thinking of buying either the Xilinx Spartan 3 starter kit or the Digilent Spartan 3 board with a larger FPGA (say, the 400 instead of the Xilinx one with the 200). It's the same board, but Digilent allow me to order a larger part.

Do I need a larger FPGA? I can't answer that... but I figure it's like RAM... better to have too much and not need it than need it and not have it. What am I going to do with it? My first project will be to make an LED flash. Beyond that, I have no idea, but the Digilent-built boards have lots of ins and outs to play and learn with.

The Xilinx starter kit comes with ISE6.1 Evaluation, WebPack and also the EDK evaluation and MicroBlaze license. The Digilent board is just a board.

I'd like to use the latest tooks (WebPack 7.1), and use the MicroBlaze core, but I'm not a professional, don't have a rep and don't have a budget.

If I buy the Digilent board, can I just download the EDK, or is it something Xilinx charges for so I'd be better off buying the Xilinx starter kit?

Advice appreciated.

Thanks. Paul.

Reply to
Paul Marciano
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Also a 1mil gate S3

If you can wait a while(like until end of the year)

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Also are the Xess boards

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fpga4fun

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Tony Burch

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Depends what you want to do but can't hurt. Lots of xilinx app notes.

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Can also request a resource cd that has all the xilinx docs on it, link on s3 starter kit page

Lots of potential projects

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may need modifying slightly do to board differences

digilentic have a few reference designs and also addon boards like usb and ethernet , lcd etc reference designs

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peripheral boards
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xilinx link for daughter boards
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xilinx has a few for the S3 starter kit at the bottom of this page

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old arcade games

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Good stuff here

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picoblaze core from xilinx

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webpack is free edk is not, supposedly you get an eval copy when you buy an S3 starter kit from Xilinx and xilinx were supposedly shipping copies of the eval edk to everyone that bought an S3 starter kit but I haven't receieved an eval edk cd yet.

They charge for it US$450 ? The eval version is 30 days only I think ?

There are a couple of opensource cores from

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that have compilers for them but not prepackaged with gui tools

Also for microblaze - uclinux port

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Aklex

Reply to
Alex Gibson

Looks interesting.

I'm grateful to Xilinx and Altera for making their design entry and synthesis tools available for free. I wish they'd do the same for their EDK (but then, if they did, I'm sure I'd also want a free MAC, or PCI core).

Thanks for all the links Alex. I'll most likely get the larger Digilent board, and forget about microblaze. A shame though.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Regards, Paul.

Reply to
Paul Marciano

Just as a random interjection, you can actually get a free pci core.. At opencores.org :) 32/33MHz only though...

Jeremy

Reply to
Jeremy Stringer

Hi Paul!

Go for the Picoblaze instead, it's free and comes with tools.

DJ

Reply to
Dr Justice

or

Hi Paul,

You can download a free evaluation of the complete set of Nios II tools here:

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Our system integration tool (SOPC Builder) is included free with Quartus, and with Nios II you get a whole suite of IP, configurable processor choices, and IDE:

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There are a lot of features and more are being constantly added (such as your choice of 100% vhdl or verilog, push-button RTL simulation of your system running code, clock-domain crossing with a couple of mouse-clicks, multi-processor debugging, RTOS integration (eCOS, uClinux, MicroC/OS-II, and several more), complex example designs, etc. The free evaluation tools are only crippled in one way: The Nios II CPU has to be used in a "tethered" mode where your download cable has to be connected to the target board; you can then evaluate the product in hardware as long as you want. The full-blown license is about $1K US with a very nice dev board, less for just the subscription to the processor only.

We also recently introduced a $295US evaluation kit with Cyclone

1C12/flash/sdram, etc.:
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Hope you'll consider us as well.

Jesse Kempa Altera Corp. jkempa at altera dot com

Reply to
kempaj

I didn't know that. Thanks - Picoblaze will do nicely :-)

Reply to
Paul Marciano

Thanks Jesse - I'll definately download it and take a look. The problem I have is the $295 evaluation kit and $1K license for the processor IP. Both of these are outside my budget.

Why not make these available for free under a non-commercial license? That would allow anyone to freely evaluate it without restriction, until they make the decision to commercialize their design, at which point they must pay. I guess that requires a level of trust in the customer ;-)

I imagine the Xilinx/Digilent relationship does a good job of grabbing mindshare of hobbyists and students who may eventually become real customers in their corporate/engineering lives.

I read a lot of good things about Quartus, and the companies I have worked at have used Altera FPGAs... but for me, to learn, the cost of entry is too high.

I will look at it. Thanks for the links!

Regards, Paul.

Reply to
Paul Marciano

IP.

customer

Hi Paul,

Well I think that is the intent of the 'tethered' evaluation mode. The idea is that you get full use as long as the target board (Altera dev board or not) is connected to the PC... but I will leave the reasoning behind all this to the marketing force; "I'm just an engineer".

Is this an academic project of some sort? If so, you might contact the Altera University Program. Depending on your project and circumstances they may be able to get you boards and/or licenses without cost.

Jesse Kempa

Reply to
kempaj

Hi Paul,

If you don't pay for the core or the software, you can still build a NIOS II system that will run either for 1 hour when standalone, or indefinitely as long as it's attached to the PC running Quartus through the cable supplied with the eval board. Cost: $295.

Of course, you could also look at the Pluto II board

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for $54,95. A NIOS II will fit into the EP1C3T144 FPGA on that board. You won't have the capability of 'tethered operation', but 1 hour of running time should give you lots of opportunities to learn stuff.

Best regards,

Ben

Reply to
Ben Twijnstra

the

circumstances

I'm a working stiff, not a student, so I can't use the AUP.

Thanks for the idea though - I'm sure there are students out there with similar cost concerns who could benefit.

Regards, Paul.

Reply to
Paul Marciano

will

capability of

of

That's a nice little board, thanks!

Q. How do you limit the operation to 1hr? Do you have a countdown timer hard wired for a configured clock frequency? What if the processor is configured for xHz and an x/2 Hz oscillator is fitted - will it run 2hrs?

Regards, Paul.

Reply to
Paul Marciano

Hi Paul,

Yep. There's about a 36-cell difference between a licensed core and an unlicensed one, and that's the down counter and its clock-enabling logic.

Note that in the EP1C3, without any external SRAM or Flash, you only have room for ~4K ROM and ~2K RAM (or the other way around). No problem if you want to learn assembly, but for C you'll be on a tight budget.

I've written small control applications in C with this configuration (not for this board) and as long as you don't use printf or other size hogs, there's a surprising lot of functionality you can stick into 4K of code.

Also, Quartus is smart enough only to update the internal hardware ROM pattern after you recompile your software, so software changes can be relatively quick.

Best regards,

Ben

Reply to
Ben Twijnstra

I second the picoBlaze recomendation. We have a design that uses an embeddec picoBlaze, and it worked great.

If you use the picoBlaze, be sure and download pBlazeIDE, the free IDE, from:

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Urb

Paul Marciano wrote:

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Reply to
Paul Urbanus

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