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PC requirements for ISE webpack

I am thinking of buying (or upgrading) my PC for an FPGA project.

At the moment I am using a windows laptop for synthesis and P&R runs. I use a Linux PC for simulation runs.

Ideally I would like to move everything onto a linux PC. I have not got to the stage of debugging the design.

I would say I need a PC with lots of physical memory. A parallel port (probably via a PCI interface) parallel cable III (probably bought with a starter kit)

Any other interface ports that I need?

At a pinch I can probably use wine.

I have no plans to use EDK.

If there is anything that I have missed then please tell me. I'd hate to buy something and then find out "oh you need ..." .

Thanks very much Andy.

Reply to
Andy Botterill
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The Synthesis/Place/Route process seem to be equivalent to traversing a *large* node tree repeatedly which will trash any cache. Thus you should look for something that have a really fast memory bus and a really large L2 cache >1MB primarly. Going from 32bit to 64bit seem to increase performance by 20% according to another poster. (is different ISE versions faster/slower?). Intel Core2 seems to be 1,69 times faster than AMD64 X2. I assume this is related to L2 cache and memory *bus* speed.

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Under linux you can figure out how much memory you really need by checking how much swap that is used.

You can get faster (3x?) programming via USB rather than PCI-parallell port. However the last alternative "just works". Check linux drivers! Xilinx Platform USB can be used via a free program that will reflash the cpld (?). The best resource for fpga-jtag-linux is to search forums and the web. Don't count at all on vendors.

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It's not problem to run ISE with linux-api module (linux.ko) under FreeBSD btw.

Reply to
posedge52

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote: ...

If you run on anything non-Redhat/Windows, be prepared to get the answer "Not a supported platform" all the time :-( for every problem you report/webcase you open, as unrelated to any distribution the problem can be. It takes persistance to get Xilinx first level support to realize the problem...

--
Uwe Bonnes                bon@elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de

Institut fuer Kernphysik  Schlossgartenstrasse 9  64289 Darmstadt
--------- Tel. 06151 162516 -------- Fax. 06151 164321 ----------
Reply to
Uwe Bonnes

btw.

So far I have solved problems without help from Xilinx. And should it be needed one can always employ helpdesk engineering :)

Reply to
posedge52

New motherboard with more L2 cache great.

My Linux system has twice the memory of my windows system. Since I'm buying a new motherboard I'll take the opportunity to get more memory.

An extra USB port. I know I need some more. Added to the shopping list :-) .

Will that work under fedora? Full GUI usage under Fedora would be really good. The ability to do synthesis and simulation on the same system would be great. Thanks Andy

Reply to
Andy Botterill

btw.

Sounds like a default response.

So far I haven't had any ISE issues that I can't fix by creating a new project and putting the original source.

As to my verilog and design that's my own fault. I am definitely still learning.

Thanks Andy

Reply to
Andy Botterill

Unfortunately that seem to apply to most EDA tools. I would recommend to use one of the Redhat clones like CentOS/WhiteBox/StarCom assuming of course you can't afford to buy a Redhat EL license.

Hans

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Reply to
HT-Lab

Maybe the term 'ISE' was a bit misleading. The whole toolchain is possible to run under FreeBSD with linux.ko. Third party download tools eliminates the while USB-oh-so-secret-protocol-mess. Besides I have an idea for jtag download tool which will likely be more smooth in handling. And I rather put my money on that than a neverending circus of driver mess.

A tip is to run ISE with Xnest as the display, which seem to eliminate some crashes related with X11 refresh.

I would not likely select RedHat anyway disregarding any monetary issues by the following reasons: * Network services enabled by default opens up for all kinds of security issues. * Library incompabilities causes moment 22. * Inmature code inclusion. * inconsistent filesystem layout. * Commercial tie-in, the setup is leaned towards that you must be dependent on RH. (Many other distributions don't have these issues)

Reply to
posedge52

Beside the silly use of WinDriver, I also have no real problems when running on Linux/Suse. And with Micheals work

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there is no more need for WinDriver to run Impact.

--
Uwe Bonnes                bon@elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de

Institut fuer Kernphysik  Schlossgartenstrasse 9  64289 Darmstadt
--------- Tel. 06151 162516 -------- Fax. 06151 164321 ----------
Reply to
Uwe Bonnes

Beside the silly use of WinDriver, I also have no real problems when running on Linux/Suse. And with Michaels work

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there is no more need for WinDriver to run Impact.

--
Uwe Bonnes                bon@elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de

Institut fuer Kernphysik  Schlossgartenstrasse 9  64289 Darmstadt
--------- Tel. 06151 162516 -------- Fax. 06151 164321 ----------
Reply to
Uwe Bonnes

Well, if you can afford the EDA tools (and if you are getting support, then you probably paid for them), then I think you can afford REL ;)

But that said, I think that you will not have problems on other platforms with most tools. I run all kinds of EDA tools on Fedora 7 without problems. Well, ok, I will have to admit I have not gotten Impact to work yet, even with Michael's Windriver replacement. And Aldec at least does not care that I am using F7 when I need support.

Reply to
Duane Clark

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