need help with Xilinx ISE 4.2i software

Sep 13, 2003 5 Replies

Hello, all, I hope someone can help,



I used to have my Xilinx Foundation/ISE up to date, but I let the support lapse, as all the new work seemed to be aimed at devices I was not going to use in the forseeable future.



I had Foundation running on an older Win 95 system, and just stored the upgrade boxes. I got A win 2000 system set up, installed ISE 4.2i, got my licenses for ISE and Foundation from Xilinx, and everything seemed to be working. Now, I'm trying to seriously learn VHDL, and so I need to get FPGA Express working. This used a different license scheme, as it was licensed from Synopsys. I can't figure out how to get a license file from Xilinx, or convert my old license, or whatever it takes. I have an old license from the Win 95 Foundation, but of course the disk serial numbers are different.



Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make this work? I really can't expect Xilinx to help, as I dropped my support contract.



Thanks very much in advance,



Jon



FPGA express is obsolete (Xilinx removed it and Synopsys also does not have it)...and I doubt there is anything anyone could do to setup the license again (I may be wrong though...)

If you are using any of the devices supported by the Xilinx Webpack (All CPLDs, All Spartan-II, All Spartan-IIe except 400e and 600e, XCV50E-XCV300E, XC2V40-XC2V250, XC2VP2, 3S50, 3S200, 3S400) you can use the XST tool for synthesis. Webpack can be downloaded free from downloads page of support.xilinx.com

--Neeraj

ps- spartan-3 support will be available in webpack in 6.1i release scheduled to be available end of sep...

Well, that's the problem! I'm using 5V original Spartan chips, and need them for voltage compatibility. I suppose I could look into using later Spartans with some sort of logic level converter. The lower price of the newer (and smaller die) Spartan-II and such could easily pay for the converting circuits. But, I don't really want to redesign the boards on a current product. It bugs me they don't support the old Spartan. All it would require is a few data files, it seems.

I have the software working on an old (retired) computer, but the license is locked to the hard drive serial number, and I can't move it to my current machine.

Jon

There is help for this. Whenever I install a new hard drive in a machine, I give it the same serial number as all the others. Then I can use my license on any hard drive I happen to use. Since I swap out hard drives as a backup means, this is essential.

If you need info on changing your hard drive serial number, there is a program available for that (as long as you are running a FAT drive and not NTFS). Or I can send you instructions for doing this manually using the old DOS DEBUG commands.

Rick "rickman" Collins rick.collins@XYarius.com Ignore the reply address. To email me use the above address with the XY removed. Arius - A Signal Processing Solutions Company Specializing in DSP and FPGA design URL http://www.arius.com 4 King Ave 301-682-7772 Voice Frederick, MD 21701-3110 301-682-7666 FAX

VolumeID:

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My real email is akamail.com@dclark (or something like that).

WOW, thanks Rick and Duane! Together, you've given me all the things to fix this! I didn't know how to change the volid on an NTFS disk. This fixed it, and the license seems to be working! (Now, i just have to beat my vhdl file into shape so FPGA express likes it!)

Thanks again,

Jon

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