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I received ISE 5.2 CDs in mail on Monday. I tried but failed to know what are the new features in 5.2. Probably Xilinx does not want you to know until you take a few hours to install and feel it.
Anyway, it worth a try. I think XST is getting better and better. We will probably stop paying Synplicity huge 15k/yr.
They seem to be having trouble (ie. delays) with the shipping of these CDs. I also received my CD yesterday but had to complain and request that it be sent by priority courier.
Otherwise, I don't know when I would have received it ...
The new improvements that caught my attention are:
- Support for new 90nm devices
- Modular Design : built-in
- Simulation : 2X faster
Although I do not have any feedback to give for ISE 5.2,
I can comment on ISE 5.1 with respect to previous versions.
When used with System Generator,
ISE 5.1 has proved to be much more stable than ISE4.2.
Problems such as incorrect functionnality of cores
and intermittent glitches disappeared with ISE 5.1.
If ISE 5.2 is as stable as ISE 5.1, I will be happy !
I have just installed ISE 5.2i + SP1 in my PC (w2k + SP3).
The only reason I removed 5.1i and then installed 5.2i is to have a look to the Sp@rt@n 3 family.
I have run a couple of tests. I rebuild a V!rtex 2 design, XC2V1000 and it still works which is really good (91% Slices used).
I built the same 2V1000 design in an Sp@rt@n 3 3S1000 and it uses only 62%. I've heard that S3 have the same architecture than V2 with different geometry but it seems bigger in size. I mean 2V1000 is 5120 Slices and 3S1000 is 7680. That is a lot, I had a look with FPGA Editor to the device and is really a 'lower' performance V!rtex 2. We'll see the price.
I also noticed that S3 have only been charaterised in -4 speed grade.
They look promising, and the 1.2V core voltage is interesting. But is a new geometry so I don't know if they will get it right or not.
I also wanted to have a look to XST which improves a lot every release, as qlyus also said. I noticed that 5.1i XST was much better than 4.2i.
I also wanted to have a look to XPower but no chance yet.
I also tried a design from synthesis to PAR to find out what 90nm Spartan-3 is. There are a lot of changes in geometry and less memory and multiplier blocks, S3-2000 has 40 in 2 columns (V2-1000 has 20 in 4 cols). Not a good news for our DSP appliation. Another worry about S3 is if its io is 3.3v torelent. It can not be told until the datasheet comes out.
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which is really good (91% Slices used).
