17 Apr
2011
17 Apr
'11
7:22 p.m.
On 18/04/11 00:26, Chuck Guzis wrote:
Actually, the last time I installed Xilinx ISE, it
took me about 3
tries to get it to install on Windows (finally got it to fly with a
fresh Windows OS install). On Linux, it just installed and worked
the first time (Ubuntu--and Ubuntu's not even mentioned as one of the
supported distros).
It's a pain to make it work on Linux x64. The 64-bit version of ISE
doesn't work in any usable fashion -- PlanAhead and PACE are
broken-by-design (segfault on start), and firing up the Constraints
Editor is a great way to bring it down hard and fast.
Xilinx have known about this since the first x64 builds went out to
subscription customers. The latest builds are no better...
Thankfully the x32 version works fine on a 64-bit box, but you have to
jump through some hoops to make it install:
http://www.philpem.me.uk/elec/fpga/ise12ubuntu/
For bonus points, the whole thing is linked against an ancient X11
library which can't deal with DISPLAY= strings of the form ":0.0". You
have to lose the ".0" or ISE segfaults.
Quartus has never failed to install for me on either
platform.
Me neither. It's also a hell of a lot easier to make it work -- add a
Udev rule to make the USB Blaster work non-root, and that's about it.
I like Xilinx 5V XC95xx CPLDs--you just seem to get
more efficient
usage than say the Altera MAX7000S series. Of couse, these are old
technologies, but then, this is a list for old stuff, isn't it?
I've got a bunch of XC9500 and XC9500XL parts. The XLs are really,
really nice -- 3.3V with 5V-tolerant-and-compatible I/O, 100MHz toggle
rate, and a piece of cake to design for. I learned Verilog with a
homebrew XC9572XL development board...
Only thing I've got against Xilinx is their software. It's high time
they took ISE out to pasture and replaced it with something that
actually... well... *works* without crashing or going into 100%-CPU
loops. A synthesizer that can handle CPU cache constructs without
generating faulty netlists would be nice too... (another open bug: three
years and counting!)
--
Phil.
classiccmp at philpem.me.uk
http://www.philpem.me.uk/