Looking for Xilinx Foundation 2.1i, 3.1i software.

[Beta_vulgaris]

Microchip-acquired Atmel AT6000/AT40K series are still in production, with its pinout compatible with Xilinx XC4000/XC5200/Spartan. Some Russian manufacturers still provide copies of original XC4000E series (bitstream compatible).

[peter-h]

How much is current Xilinx development software?

My client paid 10-20k GBP in 1994

There was a US company which reverse engineered the bitstream and provided alternative development tools, so Xilinx rapidly bought them

[pcprogrammer]

For both Xilinx and Altera(Intel) the software is free for the smaller devices.

Xilinx has Vivado for the newer 7 series devices. Free for lower end devices like Spartan-7 and Artix-7. For the higher end devices from series like Kintex you have to pay. Don't know the prices but probably > $1000.

For Spartan-6 devices the ISE suite has to be used. Version 14 is the last one and I believe it is available for Windows 10 now. Linux user myself so not sure about if it actually works.

The Altera devices can be programmed with Quartus. Not sure if there is also a limitation on for which devices it is free.

At the moment I have ISE and Quartus working with development boards for Spartan-6 and Cyclone IV. I also have Tang Dynasty IDE for the Anlogic FPGA's up and running for the Dake Elec FA201 development board with an AL3-10. This one is comparable with a low end Cyclone IV device.

Rather new to the modern FPGA game so it is al for learning.

[peter-h]

How low in the device range can ISE go? I can't find that info online. Can it do all the 4k devices?

Looking at Xilinx FPGA pricing, I am not surprised Xilinx make so much money

[Beta_vulgaris]

How low in the device range can ISE go? I can't find that info online. Can it do all the 4k devices?

Looking at Xilinx FPGA pricing, I am not surprised Xilinx make so much money

http://www.fpga-faq.com/FAQ_Pages/0009_Xilinx_sw_versions.htm

[peter-h]

I saw that. I see they went to Flex-LM, which is a nightmare for futureproofing, or locking the installation to a specific machine (likewise; you have to run it in a VM).

So is this old s/w of any use to anybody?

[Beta_vulgaris]

Whether it is a dongle on the parallel port, or FlexLM "node-locked bound" to an NIC ID, both of them can be bypassed easily by patching the executables, just like they do not exist for ever.

[Gerhard_dk4xp]

How low in the device range can ISE go? I can't find that info online. Can it do all the 4k devices?

Looking at Xilinx FPGA pricing, I am not surprised Xilinx make so much money

Looking at Digikey stock, I wonder what they are living from.

The small chips are always included, in the free versions they are often the only ones.
Old chips may require an old version. I had to do an original Virtex design and
was locked to version 10.something. Fun is different.

Gerhard

[Beta_vulgaris]

Old toolchains may work nearly completely in today's environment, like MAX+plus II, from schematic capture to fusemap generation; others, such as Xilinx, tools may only work partially, i.e. only backend (place and route, PnR) works.

[Gerhard_dk4xp]

For me, everything I need worked in a VMware virtual Win7 machine running under
Linux Mint. Even the download cable is correctly passed through.

ISE V14.3 for Win10 is a virtual machine itself. I did not try it. My Win10 machine is
already virtual under Linux. Running a virtual machine in a virtual machine:
I leave that for people who are out for adventures.

So I use virtual Win7 for all ISE and virtual Win10 for all Vivado.
There is a Linux /d filesystem that is D: for all windows machines. That's the
hardware design market place.

The virtual machines can be copied from the work station to a laptop by just
copying one large directory. Just say to VMware "I moved it" and not "I copied it".
If you say "I copied it", the virtual machine gets new MAC addresses which some
installed software might not like. Together with the design data on d: you simply can
continue working on the laptop. Or freeze a copy of the virtual machine on an
external hard disk.

If you have a working setup, move it to a virtual machine. Then you will be able
to run it under WIN2035.

Gerhard

[Bassman59]

Update: Patch for Viewlogic Workview included in DS290/DS390 ADDED.

oh, good god, fucking ViewLogic. That shit still lives on in Microsemichip's Libero.

[Bassman59]

There was a US company which reverse engineered the bitstream and provided alternative development tools, so Xilinx rapidly bought them

Neocad.

If you use Lattice tools, look for the copyright banners printed at the console output during a place-and-route run. You'll see them listed.

[Beta_vulgaris]

There was a US company which reverse engineered the bitstream and provided alternative development tools, so Xilinx rapidly bought them

Neocad.

If you use Lattice tools, look for the copyright banners printed at the console output during a place-and-route run. You'll see them listed.

NeoCAD FPGA Foundry serves the basis of both Xilinx Foundation/Alliance, AT&T ORCA Foundry.

[Beta_vulgaris]

Update: Patch for Viewlogic Workview included in DS290/DS390 ADDED.

oh, good god, fucking ViewLogic. That shit still lives on in Microsemichip's Libero.

Windows versions utilize FLEXlm for license checking, also easy to patch.