Xilinx A Couple of questions

[EE123]

I am loooking at getting a Xilinx development kit
from Digikey and I have a couple of questions.
I am using an IBM PC running Win 2000 XP.

First, is the Xilinx kit complete? I bought
an Atmel kit a coupe of years ago and
found out that I would have to buy a
$300 I/O software package WRONG!!!

Second, the kit from Digikey does the
Spartan but not the Virtex. Where
do you get the Virtex sofdtware?
Is that available from Xilinx exclusively?


Thanks,
Dave

 

[ghelbig]

If I were to buy a Xilinx DevKit, I'd buy it from Xilinx or the people
that actually made it.

You'll find more answers here:
<http://www.xilinx.com/products/devboards/>

 

[Benjamin Todd]

Dave, In terms of starter kits... I have had a great experience with the
xilinx HW-SPAR3E-SK-US...

I can _really_ recommend this Spartan 3E starter kit. It's an excellent
training ground for FPGA design, it has a simple programming interface, and
all the peripherals you could consider using. I bought a pile and am using
them as all sorts of wierd and wonderful things, simulators, testers. etc
etc. Use web-pack to make the code, all free. Doesn't need a programming
cable either. Plus, more interestingly, it has a fully documented set of
examples, source code and stuff like that, even picoblaze is pretty easy to
get off the ground with this...

An absolute steal for $149...

http://www.xilinx.com/xlnx/xebiz/designResources/ip_product_details.jsp?key=HW-SPAR3E-SK-US

<\end sales pitch>
Haha.
Ben

 

[EE123]

Dave, In terms of starter kits... I have had a great experience with the
xilinx HW-SPAR3E-SK-US...

I can _really_ recommend this Spartan 3E starter kit. It's an excellent
training ground for FPGA design, it has a simple programming interface, and
all the peripherals you could consider using. I bought a pile and am using
them as all sorts of wierd and wonderful things, simulators, testers. etc
etc. Use web-pack to make the code, all free. Doesn't need a programming
cable either. Plus, more interestingly, it has a fully documented set of
examples, source code and stuff like that, even picoblaze is pretty easy to
get off the ground with this...

An absolute steal for $149...

http://www.xilinx.com/xlnx/xebiz/designResources/ip_product_details.jsp?key=HW-SPAR3E-SK-US

<\end sales pitch>
Haha.
Ben

If it doesn't have a programming cable,
how does it program the chips?

Dave

 

[EE123]

Dave, In terms of starter kits... I have had a great experience with the
xilinx HW-SPAR3E-SK-US...

I can _really_ recommend this Spartan 3E starter kit. It's an excellent
training ground for FPGA design, it has a simple programming interface, and
all the peripherals you could consider using. I bought a pile and am using
them as all sorts of wierd and wonderful things, simulators, testers. etc
etc. Use web-pack to make the code, all free. Doesn't need a programming
cable either. Plus, more interestingly, it has a fully documented set of
examples, source code and stuff like that, even picoblaze is pretty easy to
get off the ground with this...

An absolute steal for $149...

http://www.xilinx.com/xlnx/xebiz/designResources/ip_product_details.jsp?key=HW-SPAR3E-SK-US

<\end sales pitch>
Haha.
Ben

If it doesn't have a programming cable,
how does it program the chips?

Dave

 

[Dave Pollum]

If it doesn't have a programming cable,
how does it program the chips?

Dave

The chips can be programmed via the board's USB port. It comes with a
USB cable. The chips can also be programmed using a parallel port JTAG
cable. That cable does not come with the board, but is available from
Digilent The board is also available from Digilent (I'm a happy
Digilent customer). Both Digilent and Xilinx sell the board for the
same price.
-Dave Pollum

 

[Benjamin Todd]

It has a USB controller that is recognised as a platform USB cable. All you
do is plug the USB cable into your PC. When you start Impact it
automatically detects the cable and boundary scan chain.
You can also program it through SPI, stand alone JTAG and a microprocessor,
and other ways, have a look at the user guide if you're interested:

http://www.xilinx.com/bvdocs/userguides/ug230.pdf

page 28 describes the USB...
Ben

 

[EE123]

It has a USB controller that is recognised as a platform USB cable. All you
do is plug the USB cable into your PC. When you start Impact it
automatically detects the cable and boundary scan chain.
You can also program it through SPI, stand alone JTAG and a microprocessor,
and other ways, have a look at the user guide if you're interested:

http://www.xilinx.com/bvdocs/userguides/ug230.pdf

page 28 describes the USB...
Ben

Do I need a software driver or is a driver included
with the package?

Dave

 

[ghelbig]

It's all in there.

You'll find more answers here:
<http://www.xilinx.com/products/devboards/>