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From: Scorpiion on 22 Oct 2009 12:01
Hi, I have just started out with some VHDL in school and would like to have
something at home to play with. I'm not sure of CPLD vs FPGA for my use,
but CPLD feel more suited for smaller projects I guess. My question is how
Linux is supported as developmentplatform? (I have linux on my computers at
home and want to be able to us them as hostsystem, at school we use some
older version of a program called warp)

I have looked at some of Xilinks and Alteras homepages and it seams that
they have software for Linux. But it would be good to hear from someone
with experince how the different software packages work? (if some company
have better software than other, or someones software is better for the
Linux platform)

I'm just not sure where to start and some genereal tips on Linux and
CPLD/FPGAs would also be good to hear... :)

Regards, Robert


From: Uwe Bonnes on 22 Oct 2009 12:21
Scorpiion <Robert.nr1(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi, I have just started out with some VHDL in school and would like to have
> something at home to play with. I'm not sure of CPLD vs FPGA for my use,
> but CPLD feel more suited for smaller projects I guess. My question is how
> Linux is supported as developmentplatform? (I have linux on my computers at
> home and want to be able to us them as hostsystem, at school we use some
> older version of a program called warp)

> I have looked at some of Xilinks and Alteras homepages and it seams that
> they have software for Linux. But it would be good to hear from someone
> with experince how the different software packages work? (if some company
> have better software than other, or someones software is better for the
> Linux platform)

> I'm just not sure where to start and some genereal tips on Linux and
> CPLD/FPGAs would also be good to hear... :)

If you really want to learn, use CPLDs. They have few resources and few kind
of resources, and so to implement something you soon hit their size limit
with deficiencies of your coding and solution approach and to squeeze your
project in the CPLD, you need to learn a lot. If you want to implement
bigger things, FPGA soon gets easier and cheaper. You can even learn a much
more with them, have they have zillions of different resources to learn and
understand.

Other things to consider:
- Number of supply voltages needed(One for XC95 versus 2 for XC2C/XC3SA
versus 3 for other XC3S)
- Voltage tolerance needed (only XC95XV is (limited ) 5-Volt tolerant
- Is the toolchain available for linux. At what costs.
To my knowledge, Altera doesn't offer a free Linx version.
- Size of your project: If you need more than about 140 registers, XC3SA
with SPI Flash soon gets to similar costs to a decent sized CPLD.
- Where do go get help. If you decide for e,g. FPGA but for friends use
CPLD, help is harder to get.

Bye
--
Uwe Bonnes bon(a)elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de

Institut fuer Kernphysik Schlossgartenstrasse 9 64289 Darmstadt
--------- Tel. 06151 162516 -------- Fax. 06151 164321 ----------
From: DJ Delorie on 22 Oct 2009 12:28

I use the Xilinx ISE WebPack under Linux for CPLD and FPGA work,
although I have my own hardware solutions for programming the physical
devices.
From: Andy Botterill on 22 Oct 2009 13:28
Scorpiion wrote:
> Hi, I have just started out with some VHDL in school and would like to have
> something at home to play with. I'm not sure of CPLD vs FPGA for my use,
> but CPLD feel more suited for smaller projects I guess. My question is how
> Linux is supported as developmentplatform? (I have linux on my computers at
> home and want to be able to us them as hostsystem, at school we use some
> older version of a program called warp)

webpack ISE 10.1 works under Fedora 8 and 11 (still checking that out).
For the free version you get the 32 bit version. It will work on a 64
bit system. I do that already. To use 64 bit version of webpack you need
to pay for licenses etc.

You may have to pay for the full version to use the larger/newer fpga's.

The ISIM simulator does work under linux.

I have no knowledge of VHDL simulators for linux.

The officially supported o/s is RHEL and I think vista.

Support for the design process I don't know. Andy
>
> I have looked at some of Xilinks and Alteras homepages and it seams that
> they have software for Linux. But it would be good to hear from someone
> with experince how the different software packages work? (if some company
> have better software than other, or someones software is better for the
> Linux platform)
>
> I'm just not sure where to start and some genereal tips on Linux and
> CPLD/FPGAs would also be good to hear... :)
>
> Regards, Robert
>
>
From: austin on 22 Oct 2009 13:42
A very good source for students is:

http://www.digilentinc.com/

If you choose Xilinx Webpack for Linux (free download), and then you
can buy the small Spartan 3E board:

http://www.xilinx.com/tools/webpack.htm
(download webpack)

and

http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?NavPath=2,719,721&Prod=BASYS2
(3E pcb)

which is commonly used at many universities and schools (so there is a
lot of stuff on the web sites of universities and schools).

Programming tools (the JTAG programming cable) used with Linux are
always a bit tough to get to work (just read the posts on the subject)
as support of USB isn't as trivial as it is with 'Windoze.'

Austin
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