Support of logical synthesis for FPGA is very important issue, please also see my recent post: http://groups.google.com/group/electricvlsi/browse_thread/thread/60dc06ab2d8ce2b4
On Nov 17, 6:37 am, John <[email protected]> wrote: > Before I started using Electric, I was using Xilinx 10.1 to design, > simulate, and implement my circuits on a CPLD board (the coolrunner II > board, to be specific). > > The coolrunner II board hooked up to the computer with a USB cable, > and a special binary file generated by the program was used to program > the board and make the schematic drawn in Xilinx. > > Are there any CPLD or FPGA boards supported by Electric? Or is > Electric not capable of being used for programmable boards? Xilinx hasn't disclosed all details on their newer chips. So most often teh vendor's (Xilinx) synthesis tools are to be used to convert results of logical synthesis (EDIF netlist) to bitstream [1] Xilinx promotes their JHDL technology http://www.xilinx.com/labs/projects/jbits/ http://academic.research.microsoft.com/Paper/1333988.aspx , which is targeted to CAD developers.due to provide functionality to place-and-route netlists generated by their tools and convert them to bitstream. It also includes some abstractions to JTAG. Yet it's functionality is limited to the chips aged about the same as Virtex-II [2] See JHDL opensource logical synthesis tool http://jhdl.org/, may be using of this tool along with command ine Xilinx bitgen and par utilities may meet your requirments [3] See the database of opensource FPGA/ASIC/Electronics tools at: http://opencollector.org, may be Xilinx process (MAP and PAR) is already partially supported by sume tool > > If it's not feasible in Electric, does anyone have any suggestions for > a reliable alternative? Xilinx ISE webpack 10.1 is nearly unusable due Rgight! :( > to its bugs. Xilinx toola are really buggy and quite none trivial!;) I spend months due to make my FPGA projects running on Virtex4 and Virtex5. I spent more time to make Linux Kernel run on PowerPC processro embedded into Xilinx FPGA-s. Xilinx tools 10.1 include a lot of features you have to request license (node locked or time limited) from Xilinx site. Yet it's a big deal to make Xilinx tools 10.1 to see all that license files... Xilinx tools 11.1 are more stable, yet I still backup my projects very often because tools may damage it. And Webpack functionality is quite limited, I'm officially using Xilinx Platform Studio 11.1 and I payed $4000 for them You also can use commertial OrcadExpress tools for synthesis. See xst.pdf and devref.pdf, Xilinx projects may be created and built using command line. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Electric VLSI Editor" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/electricvlsi?hl=en.
