Xilinx ISE/EDK + Virtex II

[helpme]

I'm working on a Senior project (TCP/IP Protocol Analyzer) using a Xilinx Virtex-II system on a chip setup.

In the past, Xilinx provided free support for other devices (such as the spartan III) via their free Webpack ISE. However, the Virtex-II device I have is not supported, and the there is no student version of the EDK (to utilize the
PPC CPUs and write C code).

Has anybody been successful in obtaining free or low cost (student) versions of the software? The academic pricing is not nominal:

$600 ISE
$250 EDK
$250 ChipScope Pro

Also, students cannot directly purchase the software at these prices. The university must submit a PO for them, which makes it much harder (and longer) to obtain the software even if I wanted to pay $1000.

I have an internship away from the school during the summer, which is why I am trying to obtain the software for home use.

 

[Bassyhead]

Not Highly Technical, you'll get much more response in Software, anyways.

 

[helpme]

I suppose there isn't a highly technical problem to solve, but the digital logic software could be considered 'highly technical'.

I figured there would be more digital engineers/students in here who would even know or have experience with Xilinx software.

 

[beer]

I've never used the Virtex ones before - but is there a reason you require them over something like the Spartan3? Sorry, I'm not much help.

 

[RichieZ]

Originally posted by: helpme
I have an internship away from the school during the summer, which is why I am trying to obtain the software for home use.

Aren't you not supposed to use academic licences for commerical use?

Can't you ask the company you are interning at for a laptop/desktop with the necessary software/hardware.

 

[blahblah99]

Originally posted by: helpme
I'm working on a Senior project (TCP/IP Protocol Analyzer) using a Xilinx Virtex-II system on a chip setup.

In the past, Xilinx provided free support for other devices (such as the spartan III) via their free Webpack ISE. However, the Virtex-II device I have is not supported, and the there is no student version of the EDK (to utilize the
PPC CPUs and write C code).

Has anybody been successful in obtaining free or low cost (student) versions of the software? The academic pricing is not nominal:

$600 ISE
$250 EDK
$250 ChipScope Pro

Also, students cannot directly purchase the software at these prices. The university must submit a PO for them, which makes it much harder (and longer) to obtain the software even if I wanted to pay $1000.

I have an internship away from the school during the summer, which is why I am trying to obtain the software for home use.

Is there a reason why you need the Virtex 2 support in their ISE? You can easily do it with a Spartan 3, and those are supported in their free webpack.

I have the full version BASE-X and even though there is support for all devices, there are no IPs included except the basics.

 

[helpme]

Originally posted by: beer
I've never used the Virtex ones before - but is there a reason you require them over something like the Spartan3? Sorry, I'm not much help.

Well, the Virtex-II supports embedded hard PPC or soft Microblaze processors. The idea is to be able to run a RTOS (such as Lynx, VXWorks or embedded linux) and interface it with custom FPGA logic do to some processing or talk to external devices. Because the device will be running Linux, I can combine software (C) and hardware (verilog) in one project.

I don't believe the Spartan-3/E supports embedded hard PPC processors, only the RISC MicroBlaze and PicoBlaze. I had planned to run embedded linux on the a hard PPC processor (the Virtex-II supports 2 per chip, but that's way beyond me).

The Virtex-II board I have has SATA, Ethernet, a DDR SDRAM slot, a CF slot, Keyboard and mouse ports, SXGA Video port and audio in/out. It's got everything I need for 300$, I didn't find a spartan 3 board with all these connectors for a price that low.

I'm aiming to create a stand alone protocol analyzer, supporting some common protocols such as HTTP, FTP, SMTP etc. The Ethernet is needed for obvious reasons, the SATA interfaces can be used to store data dumps, the ability to add ram can be used to store incoming data packets. The VGA and PS2 hookups can be used to operate the device directly.

Aren't you not supposed to use academic licences for commerical use?

Can't you ask the company you are interning at for a laptop/desktop with the necessary software/hardware.

This is for a school senior project, not for the company I am working for. I would normally be able to work in the school lab, but because I'm away from school during the summer I don't have access to it.

I have the full version BASE-X and even though there is support for all devices, there are no IPs included except the basics.

I thought that Base-X doesn't include the EDK and PPC/Microblaze cores unless you buy it (the edk) as an option. I'm sure the EDK includes at least the microblaze license.

 

[blahblah99]

Originally posted by: helpme

Originally posted by: beer
I've never used the Virtex ones before - but is there a reason you require them over something like the Spartan3? Sorry, I'm not much help.

Well, the Virtex-II supports embedded hard PPC or soft Microblaze processors. The idea is to be able to run a RTOS (such as Lynx, VXWorks or embedded linux) and interface it with custom FPGA logic do to some processing or talk to external devices. Because the device will be running Linux, I can combine software (C) and hardware (verilog) in one project.

I don't believe the Spartan-3/E supports embedded hard PPC processors, only the RISC MicroBlaze and PicoBlaze. I had planned to run embedded linux on the a hard PPC processor (the Virtex-II supports 2 per chip, but that's way beyond me).

The Virtex-II board I have has SATA, Ethernet, a DDR SDRAM slot, a CF slot, Keyboard and mouse ports, SXGA Video port and audio in/out. It's got everything I need for 300$, I didn't find a spartan 3 board with all these connectors for a price that low.

I'm aiming to create a stand alone protocol analyzer, supporting some common protocols such as HTTP, FTP, SMTP etc. The Ethernet is needed for obvious reasons, the SATA interfaces can be used to store data dumps, the ability to add ram can be used to store incoming data packets. The VGA and PS2 hookups can be used to operate the device directly.

Aren't you not supposed to use academic licences for commerical use?

Can't you ask the company you are interning at for a laptop/desktop with the necessary software/hardware.

This is for a school senior project, not for the company I am working for. I would normally be able to work in the school lab, but because I'm away from school during the summer I don't have access to it.

I have the full version BASE-X and even though there is support for all devices, there are no IPs included except the basics.

I thought that Base-X doesn't include the EDK and PPC/Microblaze cores unless you buy it (the edk) as an option. I'm sure the EDK includes at least the microblaze license.

Then why not use microprocessor development kit? It's much more development friendly for this application.... Something like an ARM7/9 or Coldfire development kit.

 

[helpme]

Then why not use microprocessor development kit? It's much more development friendly for this application.... Something like an ARM7/9 or Coldfire development kit.

Well, I plan to do both software and hardware design for this project (implement some functions in hardware to call from software) so just a straight microprocessor platform won't give me that flexibility (though it would be easier .

It's also a double edged sword, since I have used it for other Verilog classes, and will still need an FPGA for my remaining microprocessor design and state machine classes.

 

[itachi]

talk to whoever it is that oversees the simulation software suite.. if they haven't compiled the xilinx libraries for linux already, ask them if they could.. then u should be able to compile and run simulations through a linux server.

 

[helpme]

Wait, wouldn't I still need the EDK and ISE to build the projects to simulate? I have the hardware, just not the tools.