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Messages from 5750

Article: 5750
Subject: Xilinx/NeoCAD software vs. XC4KE question
From: Steve Gross <gross@pa.msu.edu>
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 1997 11:12:09 -0500
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Hi,

I have a dilemma regarding Xilinx software, NeoCAD (OK, Xilinx also)
software, and XC4KE devices.  

I am an XACT Foundry V7.0 (aka NeoCAD FPGA Foundry) user.  I am
have spent a lot of time getting to know this software and I like
it a lot.  But it doesn't support XC4KE features.

I also have XACTstep XC4000E Pre-Release V1.0.0, which does support
XC4KE features, but which I have so far not attacked in earnest.

Finally, Xilinx claims that they are hard at work on their new
generation of software, which will "merge" XACT and NeoCAD tools,
taking the "best" of each in some miraculous fashion.  Whenever
I call Xilinx, they say that the merged toolset will be released
"real soon now."

The dilemma is this.  If I believe that the merged toolset is actually
on the horizon, then I should not bother with the XACTstep pre-release,
because just about the time I get proficient with it, it will be
obsolete.  But if the merged toolset is not going to appear, then
my best (only) plan is to start using both the NeoCAD tools and
the XACTstep pre-release tools (and then be stuck with TWO 
obsolete toolsets when the merged product rolls out). 
 
What I *want* (but have been told is not going to happen) is for a 
new version of XACT Foundry to appear at my doorstep, with XC4KE 
support rolled in.

What I will settle for is just a straight answer on when the merged
toolset will be released, so that I can make a rational decision 
between my alternatives.  Anybody with a crystal ball, a buddy at
Xilinx, or a boss at Xilinx want to help?

Thanks,

-Steve Gross	gross@pa.msu.edu
Article: 5751
Subject: Re: ACTEL RAM BASED FPGAs
From: Petter Gustad <pegu@dolphinics.no>
Date: 12 Mar 1997 17:32:19 +0100
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Jaap Mol <jhmol@a1.nl> writes:

> Richard Schwarz wrote:
> > 
> > Anybody had any experience with the ACTEL RAM BASED FPGAs? 
> 
> I have heard that there are several beta customers in the US, testing
> this new technology and
> its new design software, but I believer no parts are commercially
> available yet. 
> Please refer to the ACTEL homepage (http://www.actel.com) for the latest
> news.
> 
> > I think this is a smart move on their part but haven't heard much about them.
> 
> I fully agree with you. I believe this technology will be the first
> SRAM-based technology on the marktet
> having a fine-grained (synthesis-friendly!) architecture. I'm very
> curious what ACTEL comes up with
> within the next few months.

I remember Crosspoint had a find grained architecture several years
ago. They supported standard ASIC tools like Verilog and Synopsys. I
received some literature from them but I have not heard from them since
then. Does anybody know what happened to Crosspoint and their CP20K
FPGA's?

> P.S. I am NOT an ACTEL employee, but our company has been using ACTEL
> anti-fuse technology, as well
> as XILINX and ALTERA SRAM-based technology. 

Petter
-- 
________________________________________________________________________
Petter Gustad                             http://www.dolphinICS.no/~pegu
Article: 5752
Subject: Re: FPGA Reliability
From: peter@xilinx.com (Peter Alfke)
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 1997 09:55:24 -0700
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
In article <331F5B0F.10E8@Boeing.com>, Mark.E.Osterud@Boeing.com wrote:

> Can someone point out a study that evaluates the reliability aspects of
> an FPGA as opposed to discrete logic?

This is a very broad question, and I would suggest to narrow it down to:

1. Hard failures
2. Soft errors
2a. Soft errors as a result of radiation ( single-event upset )

Regarding 1, Xilinx devices ( and I can only speak for my company, but I
assume that our competitors are not very much worse, otherwise they would
be out of business ) have an excellent recod of reliability, expressed in
sigle-digit FIT numbers.
You can ( and most likely do ) receive a quarterly reliability brochure
update from Xilinx. We are very proud of our record, which is partly the
result of using state-of-the-art, but otherwise plain-vanilla CMOS
processing.No strange voltages, no exotic structures, no untestable
circuitry. ( Do you detect a slight bias against antifuses here ?)

2. We have never heard of configuration bits getting corrupted under
normal operating conditions. We make the configuration latches out of
active inverters, -no polysilicon pullups here- so we expect the
configuration to be far more robust than the information stored in
standard SRAMs.

2a.  Considering the business your company is in, this may be important to
you, but I don't have data here. You may read a very, very long thread in
this newsgroup a few months ago.

Peter Alfke, Xilinx Applications
Article: 5753
Subject: Re: A viewlogic story
From: "Thomas D. Tessier" <ttessier@talcian.com>
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 1997 10:04:18 -0700
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Erik Jessen wrote:
> 
> I would recommend looking at Synario's ECS schematic-capture/waveform
> display tool.  it was very solid for us, and had a lot of nice features
> (VHDL, Verilog, EDIF netlisting, can netlist to PCB layout tools, etc.).
> 
> We used it with Modeltech and Exemplar, and liked it a lot.  We had
> probably 20-30 copies of ECS.
> 
> Erik

Check out Veribest at http://www.veribest.com

They are currently OEMing FPGA Express and have a very good PCB tool.

Have fun.

-- 
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
: ttessier@talcian.com    |  Phone:  303.440.0570                      
:
: Thomas Tessier          |  FAX:    303.441.5811                      
:
:                         |  WWW:   http://www.talcian.com             
:
+------------------------Have a nice
Day--------------------------------+
Article: 5754
Subject: Re: A viewlogic story
From: garyk@svpal.svpal.org (George Noten)
Date: 12 Mar 1997 17:13:05 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Mike Williams (please@no.junk.mail.com) wrote:

: Any suggestions. I need schematic entry for PCB design. I don't need
: to actually do the PC layout, just produce the schematics, parts
: list and netlist.

 OrCAD DOS (SDT386) - if you can get it , of course.  Both OrCAD and 
 ViewLogic had good schematic tools before upgrades (or ,rather, down-
 grades) for Windows.  OrCAD for DOS is much cheaper than ViewDraw.  Other-
 wise they are roughly equivalent if you don't need simulation.


Article: 5755
Subject: Viewlogic/Xilinx questions
From: Rod Leiting <rodnstacy@internetMCI.com>
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 1997 09:16:29 -0800
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Hi,

I am currently working on an FPGA design using the Xilinx PCI Logicore. 
The core is pretty user friendly and the testbench supplied by Xilinx
seems to work pretty well, but I do have some problems.

Since I was still trying to get entirely familiar with our tool
capability I designed a slave only device containing a small chunk of
SRAM.  I did the cookbook R/W decode logic in shematic form in order to
work out the bugs in the testbnch.  Everything went very smooth.  The
design simulated functionally and placed/routed quite easily. 

I then took the same design and did the R/W decode in VHDL.  I simulated
the design by creating an XNF file from Exemplar, creating a WIR file
for the decode logic w/Xilinx XACT tools set, created a schematic model
by hand for the decode logic, and everything seemed to play well.  I was
able to functionally simulate the R/W of that RAM quite easily.

One of our tool admins mentioned to me that Viewlogic has a tool that
will read a VHDL file and create a schematic block.  I ran the tool and
sure enough a schematic block was created, but I can't seem to
functionally simulate the design like I could the hand created block.

After I plugged the new shematic model into my schematic I ran the
"check" tool which creates the WIR files for the design.  When I was
doing the design w/hand created models I would get a warning saying "the
schematic for decode.1 was not found".  Of course this makes sense since
there was no schematic and I created the associated WIR file from the
XNF file.  When I performed the check w/the VHDL->SYM generated tool
there were no warnings about missing schematic blocks.  

After plugging the design into VSM and creating the vsm file, I tried to
simulate my shiny new design.  Needless to say the system didn't
recognize the logic in the logic block.  

After looking at the schematic symbol created by the Viewlogic
"VHDL->SYM" I noticed that there were attributes which implied the
IN/OUTs were VHDL STD LOGIC blocks.  

I am assuming that the reason the tool didn't simulate the decode logic
was because the VHDL was supposed to be simulated on the fly.  Obviously
it wasn't looking for a WIR file which was generated from and WNF file,
because I had that in the WIR directory.

I guess I am asking how I get the VHDL so simulate on the fly w/Fusion
or maybe some pointers to put me on the right path.  I am guessing that
the design and the schematic blocks are linked ok when it hits Fusion,
but some silly switch isn't set in Fusion or my file structure isn't
correct and it is looking in the wrong directory.  Of course the
designers have no manuals, so I  am sitting in the dark.

Thanks
Rod Leiting
rjleitin@cca.rockwell.com
rodnstacy@internetmci.com
Article: 5756
Subject: Development board with multiple FPGAs
From: Hari Shankar <hshankar@wlv.hp.com>
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 1997 12:12:08 -0800
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Is it possible to purchase a development board with multiple XILINX 4000
series FPGAs so that large designs can be accomodated?  If so, can I 
have the address/phone# of the company?

Thanks in advance,

Hari Shankar
Article: 5757
Subject: Re: VHDL & ABEL synthesis tools on 95/NT
From: akugel@t-online.de (Andreas Kugel)
Date: 12 Mar 1997 20:12:11 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Todd A. Kline wrote:
> 
> We are currently using ViewSynthesis and ViewPLD for FPGA and PLD/CPLD
> designs.
> We find ViewSynthesis optimizes the Xilinx FPGAs very poorly and ViewPLD
> is buggy, unstable, and poorly supported.  I would be very grateful for
> any feedback on the following products:
> 
> 1) Exemplar
> 
> 2) Synario
> 
> 3) Minc (PLD/CPLD) + Synplicity (FPGA).
> 
> I have done some benchmarking on Synplicity and found that it optimized
> better then ViewSynthesis, but I'd prefer a unified VHDL/ABEL solution.
> 
> I also must say that I have a GREAT prejudice against Synario.  I have
> found DataIO support to be on a par with VIEWlogic, that is to say
> horrible.  I also have doubts about DataIO's commitment to EDA
> products.  Does any one remember FutureNet/Gates?
> 
> For these reasons I find my self leaning to Exemplar but only because I
> know next to nothing about them.  Ignorance is, after all, bliss.
> 
> Your feedback is eagerly anticipated.
> 
> Todd
Synplicity is a very fast synthesis tool but gives almost no
feedback about what it has done (at least in last years release 2.99).
Exemplar gave a very good impression in a demo.
You might also want to check the accolade tools (I believe their address
is http://www.acc-eda.com) or synopsys fpga express.


-- 
Andreas Kugel,  Karolinenstr. 4  
76135 Karlsruhe, Germany
Phone: (49) 721 377865, Fax (49) 721 937 49 12
E-mail: akugel@t-online.de

Article: 5758
Subject: Re: Development board with multiple FPGAs
From: s_clubb@netcomuk.co.uk (Stuart Clubb)
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 1997 23:09:25 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Try Aptix at:
http://www.aptix.com

Probably not cheap, but looks_real_nice. :-)
Article: 5759
Subject: Re: viewoffice compatibility - dumb question
From: eteam@aracnet.com (bob elkind)
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 00:10:13 -0000
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
rich.katz@gsfc.nasa.gov says...
> hi,
> 
> i have upgraded a bunch of viewlogic 'seats' to the viewoffice stuff and
> got them all at the exact same revision.  seems like a good idea.  now,
> some seats were upgraded from workview plus and others from pro series. 
<snip>
> now that they are all the same,
> i am having trouble (like can't do it) reading files on 'heritage' pro
> series seats from former workview plus seats, although they are just simple
> schematics that i can easily create on either computer.  and going from the
> former pro series to the former workview plus seems to work just fine.
> 
> suggestions? comments?

Sounds like possible artifacts from the ViewLogic licensing
scheme for WV and PRO, where PRO licenses were deliberately
crafted so that there was no compatibility permitted from
WV to PRO seats.  ViewLogic tech support should be able to
sort this out for you, but the fix should be interesting.

Here's a possible suggestion, if you're desperate:

How about installing the old WorkView on the former
PRO seats?  Have you tried that?  If that works, then
you can try "upgrading" the WV to WV Office.  This may
be worth a go.

And here's a gratuitous comment:  ViewLogic's licensing,
dongle, and security key schemes were devised to maximise
revenue to the last penny.  For users, it was a real pain
to be blocked at every new turn while trying to do something
that should have been simple enough, and every time the
answer from ViewLogic was 'sure, we can help you, here's
what you need to buy, and this is how much it costs.'

I wouldn't be surprised if you've been bitten by a residual
artifact of their arcane licensing policy and implementation.
You would not have been the first, if this is the case.

Good luck, and please post the final fix for this problem!

-- Bob

****************************************************************
Bob Elkind                              mailto:eteam@aracnet.com 
7118 SW Lee Road               part-time fax number:503.357.9001
Gaston, OR 97119           cell:503.709.1985   home:503.359.4903
****** Video processing, R&D, ASIC, FPGA design consulting *****
Article: 5760
Subject: Re: Xilinx/NeoCAD software vs. XC4KE question
From: eteam@aracnet.com (bob elkind)
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 01:00:24 -0000
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
In article <3326D5D9.6F67@pa.msu.edu>, gross@pa.msu.edu says...
> Hi,
> 
> I have a dilemma regarding Xilinx software, NeoCAD (OK, Xilinx also)
> software, and XC4KE devices.  
> 
> I am an XACT Foundry V7.0 (aka NeoCAD FPGA Foundry) user.  I am
> have spent a lot of time getting to know this software and I like
> it a lot.  But it doesn't support XC4KE features.
> 
> I also have XACTstep XC4000E Pre-Release V1.0.0, which does support
> XC4KE features, but which I have so far not attacked in earnest.

  <snip>  

> What I *want* (but have been told is not going to happen) is for a 
> new version of XACT Foundry to appear at my doorstep, with XC4KE 
> support rolled in.
> 
> What I will settle for is just a straight answer on when the merged
> toolset will be released, so that I can make a rational decision 
> between my alternatives.  Anybody with a crystal ball, a buddy at
> Xilinx, or a boss at Xilinx want to help?

> -Steve Gross	gross@pa.msu.edu

When it comes time to Xilinx tools software, the wisest course
is to not depend on a specific release/availability date.
I don't mean this as a swipe at Xilinx, please don't misunderstand.
Would you want Xilinx to release a package that wasn't fully
tested and wrung out, in order to meet a specific availability
date?  I don't think that is what you really want.  Xilinx
has had problems in the past with SW releases that were
buggy.  I think Xilinx is trying hard to correct that practice,
even though additional testing adds time to the development/release
schedule.

In the engineering spirit, you should make do with the tools
that are available and that you can make work today. If something
better comes along, then you can always consider a switch (and
the risk of a new learning curve) at that time.  Depending upon
the circumstances, many designers won't even consider major
tools changes in the middle of a project, unless they are
really desperate.  The risk is usually too great.

-- Bob Elkind

****************************************************************
Bob Elkind                              mailto:eteam@aracnet.com 
7118 SW Lee Road               part-time fax number:503.357.9001
Gaston, OR 97119           cell:503.709.1985   home:503.359.4903
****** Video processing, R&D, ASIC, FPGA design consulting *****
Article: 5761
Subject: How to count the total numbers of Product Term for Altera MaxPlusII compiler report?
From: frank_xie@writeme.com
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 01:09:09 -0600
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
  For some reasons, I need to know the total numbers of the Product Term
that are used in my design, but the MaxPlusII compiler report only gives
me the sharable expander numbers. So does anyone know where to find it?
Please don't tell me to count them one by one :-)  The device I use is
MAX7000 series.

-------------------==== Posted via Deja News ====-----------------------
      http://www.dejanews.com/     Search, Read, Post to Usenet
Article: 5762
Subject: The Logic Level of design using Altera devices
From: frank_xie@writeme.com
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 01:09:09 -0600
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Does anyone know where to find the logic level of a design accomplished
with Altera device? The Fmax, Tpd are not enough for me, I need the
abstract information, independent to speed grade.

-------------------==== Posted via Deja News ====-----------------------
      http://www.dejanews.com/     Search, Read, Post to Usenet
Article: 5763
Subject: Re: A viewlogic story
From: ganley@world.std.com (Timothy P. Ganley)
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 08:02:16 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
ecla@world.std.com (alain arnaud) wrote:

>A viewlogic story...

>I have been using Viewlogic since the late 80s. Workview 4.x for DOS, 
>Powerview for Unix and Workview/Plus for Win 3.1, were excellent 
>products, for both schematic entry and simulation, they even had
>a decent hot line and knowlegeable tech support. All of the above 
>products were compatible,a schematic entered in Powerview could be 
>read and modifiedin Workview and Workview+, and vice versa. 
>There was support for command line and macros.
>I would say the only problem with Workview+ was the lack of support of
>windows printers, but it came with a set of drivers for many printers. 
>Workview+ and Powerview shared the same GUI.

>In 93/94, they came out with the ProSeries, the only reason to purchase
>these tools is that they were cheaper than  Workview+ and they were 
>windows compliant. They were buggy and lacked many features.

>In 95/96, ViewOffice was announced and delivered, everyone using Workview+
>had a choice of either getting an upgrade for Win3.1 and for Win95/NT, with
>the understanding that the Win3.1 upgrade would be the last one, with no
>further product enhancements.

>When ViewOffice was in beta, Viewlogic received dozens if not hundred
>of bug reports and enhancements requests,, they decided to ignore most
>of them and just fix the most glaring bugs that prevented the product
>from working, gone were the command line, macros, the editing shortcuts, 
>and a few other features that made Workview+ an above average CAD tool. 
>At the same time, their tech support competency disappeared. Viewoffice 
>is now an average to a below average CAD tool.

>As a consultant, I am asked what CAD tool do I recommend, and used to say
>Viewlogic. In 96, five of my clients have purchased more than 15 seats
>of Viewoffice, but no more, now its welcome to Viewlogic HELL.

>One of these clients decided to get Viewsynthesis against my advice, because
>Viewlogic made hime a deal he could not refuse. So we set on designing
>three FPGAs and two ASICs with it, after about three months of trying
>to debug the logic generated by ViewSynthesis, he wised up and
>purchased Synopsys.

>In summary:
>	- Viewsynthesis is BAD!
>	- Viewoffice is usable but less user friendly than the older
>	  products.
>	- Viewlogic tech support is non-existent.
>	- I will not recommend ViewOffice to any of my clients anymore.

>IMHO, Viewlogic decided that they had to compete with Orcad and some
>of the other low end tools at the same time they were trying to compete
>with Mentor and Cadence, and they missed the boat. They changed the sales
>channel, by focusing on distributors (Trilogic in Mass.) for small companies
>and direct sales for large corp.

>So my question is:
>	Does Mentor Graphics and or Cadence have CAD tools for Win/NT or
>	a Sparc at a competitive price?	

>Tools I use today are:
>	- Viewdraw and Viewsim (until I find a replacement)
>	- Modeltech for VHDL simulation
>	- FPGA Express for FPGA synthesis
>	- DC for ASIC synthesis

>Alain Arnaud (arnaud@ecla.com)
>ECLA Inc.


Article: 5764
Subject: Re: A viewlogic story
From: ganley@world.std.com (Timothy P. Ganley)
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 08:08:18 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
ecla@world.std.com (alain arnaud) wrote:

>A viewlogic story...

>I have been using Viewlogic since the late 80s. Workview 4.x for DOS, 
>Powerview for Unix and Workview/Plus for Win 3.1, were excellent 
>products, for both schematic entry and simulation, they even had
>a decent hot line and knowlegeable tech support. All of the above 
>products were compatible,a schematic entered in Powerview could be 
>read and modifiedin Workview and Workview+, and vice versa. 
>There was support for command line and macros.
>I would say the only problem with Workview+ was the lack of support of
>windows printers, but it came with a set of drivers for many printers. 
>Workview+ and Powerview shared the same GUI.

>In 93/94, they came out with the ProSeries, the only reason to purchase
>these tools is that they were cheaper than  Workview+ and they were 
>windows compliant. They were buggy and lacked many features.

>In 95/96, ViewOffice was announced and delivered, everyone using Workview+
>had a choice of either getting an upgrade for Win3.1 and for Win95/NT, with
>the understanding that the Win3.1 upgrade would be the last one, with no
>further product enhancements.

>When ViewOffice was in beta, Viewlogic received dozens if not hundred
>of bug reports and enhancements requests,, they decided to ignore most
>of them and just fix the most glaring bugs that prevented the product
>from working, gone were the command line, macros, the editing shortcuts, 
>and a few other features that made Workview+ an above average CAD tool. 
>At the same time, their tech support competency disappeared. Viewoffice 
>is now an average to a below average CAD tool.

>As a consultant, I am asked what CAD tool do I recommend, and used to say
>Viewlogic. In 96, five of my clients have purchased more than 15 seats
>of Viewoffice, but no more, now its welcome to Viewlogic HELL.

>One of these clients decided to get Viewsynthesis against my advice, because
>Viewlogic made hime a deal he could not refuse. So we set on designing
>three FPGAs and two ASICs with it, after about three months of trying
>to debug the logic generated by ViewSynthesis, he wised up and
>purchased Synopsys.

>In summary:
>	- Viewsynthesis is BAD!
>	- Viewoffice is usable but less user friendly than the older
>	  products.
>	- Viewlogic tech support is non-existent.
>	- I will not recommend ViewOffice to any of my clients anymore.

>IMHO, Viewlogic decided that they had to compete with Orcad and some
>of the other low end tools at the same time they were trying to compete
>with Mentor and Cadence, and they missed the boat. They changed the sales
>channel, by focusing on distributors (Trilogic in Mass.) for small companies
>and direct sales for large corp.

>So my question is:
>	Does Mentor Graphics and or Cadence have CAD tools for Win/NT or
>	a Sparc at a competitive price?	

>Tools I use today are:
>	- Viewdraw and Viewsim (until I find a replacement)
>	- Modeltech for VHDL simulation
>	- FPGA Express for FPGA synthesis
>	- DC for ASIC synthesis

>Alain Arnaud (arnaud@ecla.com)
>ECLA Inc.




FYI, I have recently evaluated the PC version of VCS.

The compiler is OK, but they insist on using Viewwave instead of XVCS
like the Unix version.

The PC version is unusable - mostly due to bugs with the VCS-Viewave
interface.


Let's hope Viewlogic doesn't ruin a great product like VCS.

--Tim

Article: 5765
Subject: Re: Xil FPGA: Usage of Multi-purpose pins as I/O
From: aweir@spherecom.com (Alan Weir)
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 14:08:39 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
On Tue, 11 Mar 1997 16:54:56 -0700, Peter Alfke <peter@xilinx.com>
wrote:

-- snip
>If you use the mode pins as outputs during the normal operation, then
>you can easily, for configuration, establish the Low level with a
>pull-down resistor ( make it 2.7 kilohm to get a nice low voltage )
>Aside from a little wasted current, these resistors cause no harm during
>operation.
>
-- more snipped

This would have been handy if it had been in the data book. I called
tech support a year or so ago with this very question for a 5210 and
after some checking the Xilinx rep. suggested 6k8. Well guess what
happened? Some boards programmed and others didn't. My own
measurements led me to use 3k0 instead.

On the subject of configuration pins it would be very useful if one
could associate signals with dedicated pins at the schematic level. I
know you can do this with pin numbers but that only works for a
specific package. For example, I have an output which is an active low
reset. I want to tie this signal to the LDC pin so I would like to add
an attribute LOC=LDC (or something similar) to the OPAD.  The same
could be done with the data pins. I use express mode programming and I
always worry that I have miss read the data book and have not
transposed the pin numbers for the data bus correctly when I create
the CST file. So adding a LOC=D0 etc. would eliminate one more error
prone operation. What do you think?

Alan Weir
Sphere Communications Inc.
Alan Weir
Sphere Communications Inc.
Article: 5766
Subject: VHDL Training Course, April 10 & 11
From: tjw2@erols.com (Insight/Xilinx)
Date: 13 Mar 1997 15:50:58 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Insight & Xilinx present a VHDL training course.

When: 	April 10 & 11 1997
Time:	8:00AM - 5:00PM

Where:	CompUSA, (301)816-4710
	1776 East Jefferson St.
	Rockville,MD

Who Should Attend?
Attending an Insight/Esperan Training Course is one of the fastest, most 
efficient ways to learn how to design with VHDL and target your design for 
devices from Xilinx.

For design engineers recently tasked with designing in VHDL, these courses are 
excellent introductions to VHDL concepts and techniques. They are also helpful 
courses for engineers with previous FPGA design experience who are now starting 
to design with VHDL.

The Benefits
Reduce your learning time		Get to market faster
Make fewer design iterations	Increase design quality

Curriculum
VHDL Introduction, Signals: Types and Operators, Concurrent and Sequential 
Statements, The Synthesis Process,  Definition of RTL Code, VHDL Coding Style 
Issues,  Synthesis of Mathematical Operators, Labs, Issues in Synthesizing to 
the Xilinx Architecture

Tuition:		$795.00
Remit to:	Insight Electronics
		6925 Oakland Mills Rd
		Suite D
		Columbia, MD 21045

	Lunch and breaks are included.

*** Tuition costs may be applied toward the purchase of a development system***

Reservations:  Call 410-381-3131 or 800-677-7716   Say you "saw it on the web"

Article: 5767
Subject: Xilinx Schematic Based Training, Rockville,MD April 7-9
From: tjw2@erols.com (Insight/Xilinx)
Date: 13 Mar 1997 16:09:33 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Insight & Xilinx present a Schematic based training course.

When: 	April 7 & 8 & 9 1997
Time:	8:00AM - 5:00PM

Where:	CompUSA, (301)816-4710
	1776 East Jefferson St.
	Rockville,MD

Course Outline:
Introduction:
	Development Systems Overview
	Architecture Overview
Xilinx Design Flow
	Schematic Entry Guidelines
	Foundation Software
	Design Manager
	Flow Engine Automatic Implementation
Timing Specifications
	Xact-Performance Delay Specification
	Static Timing Analyzer
Designing for Xilinx FPGAs
	Combinatorial Logic
	Registered Logic
	Memory Design
	I/O Design
	X-BLOX Module Generation
Designing for Xilinx CPLDs
	Text Entry Guidelines
	Xilinx-ABEL Software
Floorplanning
	Incremental Design
	XACT-Floorplanner
	Relationally-Placed Macros
Timing Analysis
	Good Design Practices
	Simulation Guidelines
Configuration
	Programming Modes
	Bitstream Generator
	PROM File Formatter
	Hardware Debugger Downloading & Readback

Tuition:		$495.00
Remit to:	Insight Electronics
		6925 Oakland Mills Rd
		Suite D
		Columbia, MD 21045

	Lunch and breaks are included.

*** Tuition costs may be applied toward the purchase of a development system***

Reservations:  Call 410-381-3131 or 800-677-7716   Say you "saw it on the web"

Article: 5768
Subject: Re: Rising_Edge/Falling_Edge Functions
From: andrew@bri.hp.com (Andrew Hana)
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 16:51:40 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Unfortunately, the VHDL parser in Synopsys can't handle a function
call to detect a rising ege or falling edge inference. It must see:

   X'EVENT and X='0'

The only way I can see for you to be able to use the functions rising_edge() or 
falling_edge() is to pre-process the code before reading into synopsys.

In the synopsys script you could have:

    sh cat FILE | perl -pe 's/rising_edge\(\s*(\w+)\s*\)/$1\047EVENT and $1=\0471\047/' > NEW_FILE
    read -for vhdl NEW_FILE

For non perl hackers, the above line probably looks grim. But it does work. The \047 
part of the substitution represents '. \047 is needed because otherwise perl thinks
that ' is string delimiter and gets a bit confused.

So \0471\047 is really '1', but I guess this is all very confusing for non-perl
hackers.

Andrew


Ben Twijnstra (bentw@pi.net) wrote:
: TswvXyooj wrote:

: > Has anyone run into this problem. Does anyone have a "set"
: > script (or something like that) that will allow me to
: > continue using  Rising_Edge(clk) and Falling_Edge(clk)
: > functions with Synopsys' tools?  Thank-you in advance.

: Although I'm not very familiar with Synopsys, you could use a function 
: like this (off the cuff, after a few glasses of wine at home, so expect
: some error messages):

: FUNCTION Falling_edge(signal clock : std_ulogic) : BOOLENA
: BEGIN
:   IF (Clock'EVENT and Clock = '0') then
:     return TRUE
:   ELSE
:     return FALSE
:   END IF;
: END;

: Rising_edge should be trivial. If you define these in a package which 
: you include you should be fine.

: Regards,


: Ben Twijnstra
Article: 5769
Subject: Re: Place and Route on Pentium Pro Benchmark?
From: Humberto Honda <honda@lecom.dcc.ufmg.br>
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 14:09:56 -0300
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Dear Gerhard,

Are you generate your circuit using synthesis tools like ViewSynthesis 5.2
 or using schematics capture ?

Cheers

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
|                                            |
|	Humberto Honda                       |          
|   Mestrado em Eletronica de Potencia       |
|   CPDEE - UFMG                             |        
|   e-mail: honda@cpdee.ufmg.br              | 
|   Home-page:www.lecom.dcc.ufmg.br/~honda   | 
| 	tel: 225-2337                        |        
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH


Article: 5770
Subject: Re: FPGA Reliability
From: "Rich K." <rich.katz@gsfc.nasa.gov>
Date: 13 Mar 1997 17:31:54 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>


Peter Alfke <peter@xilinx.com> wrote in article
<peter-1203970955240001@appsmac-1.xilinx.com>...
> In article <331F5B0F.10E8@Boeing.com>, Mark.E.Osterud@Boeing.com wrote:
> 
> > Can someone point out a study that evaluates the reliability aspects of
> > an FPGA as opposed to discrete logic?
> 
> This is a very broad question, and I would suggest to narrow it down to:
> 
> 1. Hard failures
> 2. Soft errors
> 2a. Soft errors as a result of radiation ( single-event upset )
> 
> Regarding 1, Xilinx devices ( and I can only speak for my company, but I
> assume that our competitors are not very much worse, otherwise they would
> be out of business ) have an excellent recod of reliability, expressed in
> sigle-digit FIT numbers.
> You can ( and most likely do ) receive a quarterly reliability brochure
> update from Xilinx. We are very proud of our record, which is partly the
> result of using state-of-the-art, but otherwise plain-vanilla CMOS
> processing.No strange voltages, no exotic structures, no untestable
> circuitry. ( Do you detect a slight bias against antifuses here ?)
> 
> 2. We have never heard of configuration bits getting corrupted under
> normal operating conditions. We make the configuration latches out of
> active inverters, -no polysilicon pullups here- so we expect the
> configuration to be far more robust than the information stored in
> standard SRAMs.
> 
> 2a.  Considering the business your company is in, this may be important
to
> you, but I don't have data here. You may read a very, very long thread in
> this newsgroup a few months ago.
> 
> Peter Alfke, Xilinx Applications
> 

Peter,

probably for 'radiation' effects you should break things down a bit more. 
there are several different effects, with several different mechanisms and
impacts on the chip.  these include (in general - may need to talk about
xilinx internal architecture specifically which would be interesting) :

	a. single event upset to configuration memory
	b. single event upset to chip state (i.e., is chip programmed?, jtag tap
controller state, various counters, checksum
		computations, etc.)
	c. single event upset to user storage for look up tables for logic
implementation
	d. single event upset to user memory (flip-flops, latches)
	e. single event latchup
	f. total ionizing dose effects
	
those are the major ones.  others like nuetron exposure generally aren't a
problem for standard cmos.  and prompt dose upset, latchup, etc., are used
by the military guys and are separate tests (those i generally don't deal
with too much) with separate limits.  since only active inverters are used
for configuration memories, stuck bits shouldn't be a problem like they are
in 4T commercial sram cells and haven't yet been observed in tests of
fpgas.  looking through the xilinx data book, i didn't see the optional
hard reset pin for the jtag tap controller, which figures into the seu
results, and tap controller upsets have been observed on other
manufacturer's chips with jtag with no hard reset.  having gone through a
number of data books, i only saw that quicklogic implemented the hard reset
on their parts.  personally, with like 200+ pins on these parts, for
military and space and other critical apps, i like the hard reset on the
tap controller and would give up the 1 i/o pin.

as for exotic structures, strange voltages and biases,  test data that i
have seen (and some of which i took myself) on device reliability also show
good results for devices with certain classes of antifuses.  for some other
types, reliability has been not up to speed, from what i've heard and read.
 it would be interesting to read any published or available reliability
info on the xilinx antifuse product project for comparison.  one antifuse
based part that i have seen only quotes a 10 year limit on the parts, not
good enough for many military systems and spacecraft.  anyways, the stuff
that makes the fpga's re-programmable contributes to the radiation-based
reliability - likewise, the 'exotic and strange' stuff for dielectric
antifuse fpga's contributes to their radiation-based reliability,
particularly for the commercial/military products.  there are published
reports on the radiation effects on things like charge pumps and antifuses,
which definitely are susceptible, and for the most part, limit the
radiation performance of these devices.  radiation-hardened versions (with
incorporated design changes) help quite a bit in contrast to most off the
shelf products but do not bring the failure rate to zero for these
structure and they will have an error rate measured in FITs, based on the
rad environment.

there's a running summary of radiation effects, along with other things on
fpga's at http://arioch.gsfc.nasa.gov/eee_links/eeeintro.html which is
updated quarterly.  additional info and insights are always accepted.  in
particular to the xilinx parts, there is data on the xc3090.

rk	
Article: 5771
Subject: pld 74hc195 equiv
From: rcgipson@ix.netcom.com
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 12:45:03 -0600
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
has anyone ever duplicated a 74hc195 with a pld?  i've a need
to add a 195 and some other circuitry in a single chip.

thanks for the reply.

roger

-------------------==== Posted via Deja News ====-----------------------
      http://www.dejanews.com/     Search, Read, Post to Usenet
Article: 5772
Subject: Re: Reverse Engineering FPGAs
From: "Austin Franklin" <#darkroom@ix.netcom.com#>
Date: 13 Mar 1997 19:15:59 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
>Another example -- why isn't
> PCI spec designed so to make it easy to build a high-performance
interface
> out of FPGA (eg, IRDY and TRDY should have been made to mean readiness
> to transfer data in the NEXT clock cycle).  Could it be that the
consortium
> members want no challenges from those who are not big enough to do
hardwired
> gate arrays? 
>

Actually, you are almost correct.  PCI was designed to be implemented only
in gate arrays.  When 'invented' (and I use that term loosely...) there
were no FPGAs that were really applicable to be used in PCI interfaces. 
The original intention of PCI was to make custom silicone chips that
contained both the PCI interface and the back end, say ethernet, or
graphics etc, and given this single chip solution, be quite inexpensive. 
Look at PCI 100M ethernet cards, or PCI graphics cards...they are
substantially cheaper than their ISA counterparts (or EISA for that matter)
and provide much more speed and functionality.  FPGAs at the time of PCI
conception, were very expensive.

Austin Franklin
..darkroom@ix.netcom.com.

 
Article: 5773
Subject: Re: A viewlogic story
From: simon@actrix.gen.nz (Simon Peacock)
Date: 13 Mar 1997 20:23:27 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
In message <33248F6B.5563@mail.mei.com> - Scott Kroeger
<Scott.Kroeger@mail.mei.com>Mon, 10 Mar 1997 16:47:08 -0600 writes:
:>
:>Mike Williams wrote:
:><snip>
:>
:>> I'm looking to update my NT OS CAD tool set. I was looking at ORCAD
:>> but was told by some old school VIEWlogic users that VIEWlogic was
:>> superior. Now I'm not so sure.
:>> 
:>> Any suggestions. I need schematic entry for PCB design. I don't need
:>> to actually do the PC layout, just produce the schematics, parts
:>> list and netlist.
:>

Protel for Windows Advanced Schematic is worth looking at.  Its not expensive
and will export netlists in a dozen formats.  One thing to check is for NT
compatability problems.  Aparently there are a few with the Adv. PCB package
but I'm not sure about the Schematic because its newer than the PCB package.

P.S. I think Protel don't support NT 4.0 yet. But neither do a lot of Windows
3.11 CAD suppliers so don't be too surprised if they can't help if something
strange happens in NT 4 that doesn't happen in older versions of NT
you can but ask about such things.

I communicate mostly with this guy:
matthew@protel.com.au
if you have questions about protel & NT ask protel 

--
Simon Peacock                               Telephone: +64-4-388-8964 (home)
simon@digitech.co.nz                                   +64-4-389-8909 (work)
simon@actrix.gen.nz                               Fax: +64-4-389-9901 (work)
http://www.digitech.co.nz
Work address: 102-112 Daniell Street, Newtown
              (PO Box 20-002, Wellington South)
              Wellington, New Zealand

Article: 5774
Subject: Re: Reverse Engineering FPGAs
From: z80@dserve.com (Peter)
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 21:59:03 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>

>Could it be that the consortium
>members want no challenges from those who are not big enough to do hardwired
>gate arrays? 

Even if your hypothesis might be wrong, your observation is entirely
correct. One just cannot make a cheap PCI card, without an ASIC.



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