FPGA tricks - Re: using new technology on old machines. Was: PDP-12 Restoration at the RICM

[Paul Koning]

> On Jun 15, 2015, at 1:28 PM, ben <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> wrote:
> 
> On 6/15/2015 10:57 AM, Dave G4UGM wrote:
>> But alas the software does *not* support the older chips.
>> 
>> How old is old? I managed to get a copy of ISE10.1 downloaded,
>> installed and running without phoning, ringing or otherwise jumping
>> through hoops. That supports the Spartan 2 which has been obsolete
>> for some time..  If you want to play with some Spartan 2 chips
>> contact me off-line.
> 
> I use the other brand. I also program it in ADHL, that I can understand. I also use crash and burn debugging with paper listings,
> Ben.

What’s ADHL?  I know VHDL and haven’t yet learned Verilog.  I once used an old proprietary CPLD language with Lattice (Lattice-HDL???).  Very primitive and not particularly easy to use, not to mention too limited for anything beyond little CPLDs.

VHDL and Verilog have the benefit of being standards, and at least for VHDL there are open source tools available (ghdl) that work well.

	paul