Xilinx $99 Spartan-3 kit

I would avoid Nu Horizons at all costs.

I would avoid Nu Horizons at all costs.

I would avoid Nu Horizons at all costs.

I would avoid Nu Horizons at all costs.

I would avoid Nu Horizons at all costs.

I would avoid Nu Horizons at all costs.

Tom,

You're really not that keen on them, are you?

;-)

Nial.

I'm wondering if you (or anyone else) might have tried the software that comes with the board under Win98? I know Win98 isn't an advertised supported platform, but sometimes that's just because the company doesn't want to have more platforms to test on.

The software that comes with the board won't work with Wine under Linux apparently because Xilinx opted to use the dreaded Jungo parallel port driver (why they want to have to pay a royalty to Jungo, I don't know). This is likely the reason they won't have Linux support for this board anytime soon.... on the otherhand this could also mean it won't work under Win98.

I run Linux and OSX and and thus have no use for Windows anymore, but I do have an old copy of Win98 laying around somewhere ;-)

Phil

I couldn't say. I'm running Windows 2000.

Bob Perlman Cambrian Design Works

The thread prompted me to drag out an old Spartan II dev kit that I never got around to playing...er...working with. Download the latest Webpack ISE from the Xilink site (6.2.03i, IIRC) and tried an install on the home Win98SE box.

It seemed to install OK *except* that it knocked out the USB ports I was running on a 2.0 add-in card. A quick pass through some of the examples did seem to function, although I didn't try to actually load any of them. It also does not register itself with the Win98 uninstall list (at least, it didn't show up on my box's Add/Remove applette). If/when I get serious about it (been mostly using Cypress lately) I'll probably install it on an XP notebook and forgo the '98 issues...

YMMV and it doesn't cost anything (except time) to download the app and try it.

They DO have Linux (Redhat) releases, as well. Trying them out is on my One Of These Days list...

Were you able to use Impact to program the device?

Well, it would cost me $99 for the board to try it out with.

But it didn't look like they had a Linux version for free download. Did I miss something?

Phil

As others have noted, the Xilinx site is not as transparent as it could possibly be.

There's this note on the WebPack ISE main download page: "Please note - For the 6.2 release the only supported platforms are Windows XP and Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2 or greater."

But if one enters via the support tab and look for updates one would find: "Installation instructions for Linux Users

1. Download "6_2_03i_lin.tar.gz" from:
   formatting link
2. Untar the downloaded file into an empty "staging" directory."

So only Windows is supported but there is a Linux update that's the same generation as the latest 6.2 Windows update. And there doesn't seem to be any base 6.2 system for Linux to which the service pack can be applied. Makes perfect sense to me... arrggggg

Yes, it's a nice bundle for the asking $$: decent sized device, large x32 SRAM, download cable.

I'd also like to see a version with a larger (3s400) device; even if Xilinx doesn't offer one, I'd expect that Digilent would once they start selling them directly.

The board's one major shortcoming, shared with most low cost boards, is the poor signal layout of the expansion headers:

It would add virtually nothing to the cost of these boards to show a little respect for the sub-ns edge rates found on modern CMOS devices, and place a ground pin every few I/O pins.

The pinout probably was picked to match that of the the older Digilent boards; however, it looks like there's enough room on the layout to add a third row of ground pins so the end user could snip off the pre-stuffed two row headers and use a three row header instead.

An I/O connector with diff. pair routing and provision for VRP/VRN resistors and VREF bank pins would also be handy.

Maybe on the RevB layout after they sell out of these :)

Brian

Why?

Tom Seim wrote many many times:

--

--Ray Andraka, P.E. President, the Andraka Consulting Group, Inc.

"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin, 1759

Take my word for it.

I have been in the business of 30 years and this is the most unresponsive vendor I have ever run into.

Use them at your own risk!