Getting started in the FPGA world!! [A Question]

fpga advantage 8.2

Dear all..

I want to get into the FPGA world.. I selected the FPGA Kit (XILINX Spartan-3E Kit) and now i wanna start to burn my design to it...

What i wonder about is, i have a VHDL code, written on FPGA Advantage, i wanna burn it on my FPGA, can i use FPGA Advantage for that purpose? Or i must use another tool made by Xilinx or whatever?

Please give answer in few details as i didn't deal before with it...
Thanks in advance,
Ahmad,

burning fpga code

Hi,


FPGA advantage is only for the syntesis, after you must use the Place & Route program inside the xilinx tool.
I think that for you is easier to use only the Xilinx software for the Design and after try to use some Syntesis tools (FPGA Advantage o Symplify); you can download the Xilinx Webpack 8.2 software from xilinx site (is free) and have all you need; the software is in the Xilinx Spartan 3E starter kit but is the 8.1 version.
After you finish your design you can download in the board with the USB cable.
I hope this help you.
Bye

Daniele

fpga world

Thank you Daniele for your prompt reply
But i couldn't fully understand something, is synthesis tool different that burning (or as you named it P&R tool)?

And can i use Xilinx Webpack 8.2 tool to write and simulate the VHDL code, and then synthesis and burn usign the JTAG USB cable?

Thank you for clarification
Ahmad,

fpga burning

FPGA Advantage can compile (synthesize) your HDL, but you still need Xilinx ISE to do the place-and-route and to download into the device. See diagram at bottom of page:
https://www.mentor.com/products/fpga_pld/fpga_advantage/index.cfm

ISE can do everything by itself. I recommend starting with ISE before adding FPGA Advantage into your work flow. It takes only a few clicks in ISE Project Navigator to create a new project, import your HDL, build it, and download it. Download uses a tool called iMPACT - beware, it can be confusing to new users.

I think the Spartan-3E kit includes a demo version of ISE Foundation. You can also download the free ISE WebPACK - it doesn't support the big Xilinx devices, but your starter kit has a small FPGA.

burning bit file to fpga

ahmad_abdulghany said:

Thank you Daniele for your prompt reply
But i couldn't fully understand something, is synthesis tool different that burning (or as you named it P&R tool)?

And can i use Xilinx Webpack 8.2 tool to write and simulate the VHDL code, and then synthesis and burn usign the JTAG USB cable?

Thank you for clarification
Ahmad,

Click to expand...

the synthesis tool will make your vhdl code (RTL) into a netlist that can be implemented on hardware. Place and Route is for determining the positions of the blocks you'll use, and routing is creating the connections between them. In FPGA, the design will be mapped to the FPGA resources(configurable logic blocks). In ASIC, it'll be mapped to the standard cells available from the manufacturer's library. So, FPGA doesn't mean burning, cause simply it's programmable, so it isn't really burned, like a ROM for instance. You can download again and again on FPGA(since most FPGAs are SRAM based and very few are OTP). ASIC is application specific, so once it's made, it's over nothing can be done to change its functionality.

xilinx ise can be used to do alllll what you want to download a design on ur FPGA, but u need a simulator, modelsim for instance, to functionally simulate your code

regards,
Salma

fpga advantage 8.2

Hi,

As Salma has given you a dose for using wrong word "BURNING", you must have understood that an FPGA is reprogrammable device and has nothing to do with burning
FPGA can be programmed using a JTAG cable. The bit file is stored either on the Platform flash Memory or on the SPI Flash memory. According to the option of programming available on your board, you have to genarate the bit file.
I am using XSPI tool for programming the FPGA through SPI Flash Memory:|