On Thursday 05 May 2005 16:00, Lourens Veen wrote: > So the upshot is that you can write your hardware description in > Verilog, and simulate it using the free vpp, but if you want to > actually put it into your OGP then you need the web pack for actually > converting the net list into a bit stream that can be written to the > chip. I can imagine hardware being developed by exchanging Verilog > code over the web, and developers using free tools to simulate and > test, and if there is at least one developer who can create > "binaries" then it would be enough.
Sure it would. But it should not take too much convincing for Xilinx to extend that privilege to all ogc owners, at least, owners of a card with the Xilinx part on it. There are, of course, other options, a fact that I hope Xilinx will not overlook. > I just found JBits (http://www-unix.ecs.umass.edu/~wxu/jbits/) as > well, which if I understand correctly could replace the other bits, > but it's rather limited and it doesn't support the 3S4000. Besides, > being Java the question arises whether it will work with gcj and GNU > classpath... I happen to be dropping into the (former) Cygnus office tomorrow, I'll give them the pointer and see if gcj handles it. (Could even try it myself, or you could...) > > > I'm probably in the minority here (and of course this won't be an > > > issue for the ASIC) so don't let this weigh in too heavily, but > > > I've gotten rid of all proprietary software, and I'm not going > > > back. It's just way too much of a hassle. > > > > I am not sure at all that you are in the minority. Time to take a > > poll? > > Well I don't know too many hardware engineers, so I have no idea, but > most people I know of in the software world are more like Linus (I > don't care if it's Open Source as long as it works) than like RMS (I > don't care if it works as long as it's Free Software). So I figured > most interested people would be okay with a proprietary-but-gratis > Xilinx WebPack. And with Icarus at least half of it will be free. Well, last time I checked, you, me and Timothy were doing a lot of the actual grunt work. And we all happen to believe in the free aspects of the project. Mere coincidence, or? > Anyway, is there an alternative option? A poll can't hurt I suppose, > but what if everyone demands a fully free toolchain? I don't have a problem with the Xilinx bitstream converter being non-free, after all it is tied to these specific chips. I don't understand why it makes sense for Xilinx to restrict this code or the specifications underlying it, but I can live with that, particularly since the only alternative is to forget about the Xilinx part. Regards, Daniel _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [email protected] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
