(V)HDL Toolsets

[Jon Elson]

On 05/21/2020 12:42 PM, Jim Brain via cctalk wrote:
> On 5/21/2020 12:24 PM, Eric Smith via cctalk wrote:
>> On Thu, May 21, 2020 at 10:07 AM Jon Elson via cctalk 
>> <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> (I also use Coolrunner II and XC9500XL devices in some 
>>> of my
>>> products.)
>>>
>> I used to use XC9500XL series (mostly XC9572XL) quite a 
>> bit, but I have
>> switched to Lattice LC4000ZE series because they are less 
>> expensive and
>> lower power, and (like the XC9500XL) have 5V tolerant 
>> inputs.
>>
>> I'm not thrilled with having to use yet another different 
>> toolset, but
>> c'est la vie.
>
> Is it possible for you or someone to post about how to get 
> an environment up and running in Windows and/or Linux? (or 
> link to one you used?)
>
Windows should be trivial, just read the release notes on 
what systems it is compatible with.

Linux generally will install on many OS variants, even if 
not the specific ones Xilinx says are
supported.  They have an install script that tells you if 
other packages need to be installed.
The only tricky area is to support certain download/debug 
"cables". I had a HELL of a time
getting a Digilent pod to work at work.  But, I bought a 
(probably clone) Xilinx Platform Cable USB and it worked 
pretty much right away on my home system.

I only do smaller FPGAs, such as XC3S50A, but the last 
versions of ise support much higher-end chips.
Xilinx changed the built-in serial PROM on the XC3S50AN, and 
that requires a patch file to be used instead of the 
default.  Otherwise, it all just works under Linux as expected.

Ise ver. 10 cannot be run on a 64-bit system, due to export 
controls.  It should be able to be hacked, but i couldn't 
get it to work.  Later versions seem to install fine on 
64-bit OS's.

Jon