[Elphel-support] Fpga build using ISE 11.1

[Andrey Filippov]

André,

Unfortunately it is not the only problem with ISE 11.1 - so far we failed to
convert the project to that newer version, for this project I'm still using
10.1.03 (last time I checked it was still available at Xilinx)., but
generally this is a problem when using non-free, closed source programs like
Xilinx  WebPack .

When I was starting to use this type of FPGA in 2002 I was choosing between
the two major FPGA manufacturers that provided similar performance devices,
and the other manufacturer had a 90-day license for their free-as-in-beer
software. That meant that  there was no guarantee that you will be able to
work on your design after that time passed. So I decided to use Xilinx
devices as even as they were not able to provide the software under any of
the approved FOSS licenses their programs did not have expiration time that
could jeopardize your development.

Of course there are a lot of other inconveniences when using non-free
software for the GPL-ed project, one is related to the simulation of the
design. Even we use Icarus Verilog and GTKWave (both under GNU GPL) and
Elphel code is also released under the GNU GPLv3, we need a few Verilog
models of the device primitives, and these source files are non-free (so we
can not re-distribute them) and they are "changed without notice" by the
manufacturer. Some of these models of the primitives have problems with
Icarus Verilog, so we need to patch them, and try to keep these patches
current.

I did hesitate to upgrade the project to the 11.x WebPack version - the
import/export of the project in the text format is still possible in 11.1,
but it is less straightforward to do that and I'm not sure that possibility
will remain in the future releases. Additionally when I tried 11.1 version
again I noticed a very alarming warning message:

WARNING:Security:42 - Your license support version '2010.04' for WebPack
expires in 8 days.

Xilinx Web site ( http://www.xilinx.com/support/answers/33074.htm ) explains
that the software will stay operational after the expiration, only the
updates will be disabled, but still it seems that the major competitive
advantage this manufacturer had for Elphel projects may disappear in the
future.

André, please check if you can get a compatible (10.x) version of the
software at Xilinx, as of today it is the only that works with our code
without tweaking.

Andrey





On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 1:35 PM, André Pouliot
<andre.pouliot at cegeptr.qc.ca>wrote:

>  Hi,
>
> I'm actually trying to build the fpga using ISE 11.1 from the source in
> CVS. I hit a problem because the option to import the tcl to create a
> project isn't there anymore. Ise indicate to import a project we must use
> the Tcl console in ISE.
>
> Is there anyone who were able to do so?
>
>  *André Pouliot ing. jr*
> Formateur-chercheur
> C2T3,  Cégep de Trois-Rivières
>
> tel.: (819)840-5504 #224
> fax: (819)841-0094
> 3343 Rue Foucher
> G8Z 1M8
> Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada
>
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>
>
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