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My friends in Silicon Valley have just reported that their local newspaper reports that the FBI in conjunction with the San Jose police department just raided "Avant!" (formerly "ArcSys") for allegedly stealing Cadence source code via ex-Cadence employee named "Mitsuru Igusa." The article outlines that Igusa, as a Cadence employee, allegedly e-mailed Cadence proprietary source code to his home e-mail account and then worked for "Avant!" as a consultant offering them the source code. Avant!'s CEO, Gerry Hsu, is an ex-Cadence employee who left to join ArcSys (which changed names to "Avant!" when ArcSys merged with ISS) and has had an openly antagonistic relationship with its business rival Cadence. (The most public display of this rivalary was when Gerry Hsu and Joe Costello openly sparred with each other at last year's DAC Executive Panel on various issues from market leadership to "wasting time in endless meetings.") - John Cooley Part Time EDA Consumer Advocate Full Time ASIC, FPGA & EDA Design Consultant =========================================================================== Trapped trying to figure out a Synopsys bug? Want to hear how 3713 other users dealt with it ? Then join the E-Mail Synopsys Users Group (ESNUG)! !!! "It's not a BUG, jcooley@world.std.com /o o\ / it's a FEATURE!" (508) 429-4357 ( > ) \ - / - John Cooley, EDA & ASIC Design Consultant in Synopsys, _] [_ Verilog, VHDL and numerous Design Methodologies. Holliston Poor Farm, P.O. Box 6222, Holliston, MA 01746-6222 Legal Disclaimer: "As always, anything said here is only opinion."Article: 2451
Charles.Y.Hitchcock@dartmouth.edu (Charles Y. Hitchcock) writes: > Also, has >anyone have good/bad experiences using Xilinx-ABEL for entire chip >designs? >Charlie I've used X-ABEL for parts of several 4000 family chip designs. Unless something has improved recently, it CANNOT be used for entire chip designs for the FPGA families (2000, 3000, 4000) at least -- there are no facilities for specifying pinouts and IOBs. I found that X-ABEL worked pretty well for control logic but not very well for datapath. So I wound up building data paths and pinouts using XBLOX and control state machines in ABEL, integrating the lot in a top-level schematic drawing. It was somewhat clumsy, but it worked. Over this past year, I've abandoned the schematic and ABEL based approach, and am now using Verilog to specify entire chips (all 4000 family, so far), using Exemplar synthesis software. It works fairly well except that Exemplar is also weak for datapath synthesis (this has improved with the latest "Galileo" release). However Exemplar does allow me to plug in external XNF file macros, so when I need to optimize I've been plugging in XBLOX components that way and getting pretty good results. Still clumsy, but not as bad as the schematics. With the Verilog approach I've been getting approx. 40 MHz operation using XC4000-3 speed grade and 85% or greater utilization of function generators. That's a little better density than I got using the older approach but the comparison may not be fair because of other factors. -- --JCG AnyWare Engineering, Boulder CO 303 442-0556 (voice or FAX)Article: 2452
In article <1995Sep25.090210@btmp09.be>, jdla@btmp09.be (jos de laender sh144 7461) wrote: >In article <43ugb7$amg@euas20.eua.ericsson.se>, ekatjr@eua.ericsson.se >(Robert Tjarnstrom) writes: >|> In article <43fgn7$45f@news.Belgium.EU.net>, Jan Decaluwe <jand> >writes: >|> >jcooley@world.std.com (John Cooley) wrote: >|> > >|> > >|> >>I personally tend to see hardware when I design hardware, >|> > >|> >This argument is widely used against design methodologies that rely >|> >on higher levels of abstration. I believe it is misleading. It is >the ....... >|> >|> ..... I would say that it is necessary to see hardware architecture when >you design. >|> Otherwise, you are incapable of making acceptable design solutions. >Performance and >|> product properties are determined by choise of algorithm, >architecture (at many >|> levels) and technology. Power dissipation/consumption is a physical >activity, and >|> in order to fulfil power requirements I would say it is necessary to >see HW while >|> designing. >|> >|> Prediction on power dissipation must be made for all architectural >decisions and in >|> order to make such prediction you must see hardware. If not you may >end up with drastic >|> violation on important properties. (A cellular telephone with a talk >time of 5 min >|> would probably be hopless to sell even for Microsoft :-). >|> >|> Robert Tjarnstrom >|> >|> >|> > Hi Robert, I agree with you. In the perfect world you could decouple hardware from software. You could say that repetitive cycles on buses won't cause periodic interference signals that will create birdie like signal on the received carrier...that performing programming synth chips before phase locked loops have stabilised is O.K. That the battery has infinite life and that the unit can cost an infinite amount of money, doesn't have to meet hard deadlines, or respond to lots of asynchronous events that can interact in substantially different ways dependant upon the hardware topology. That DSP really isn't that difficult, and the listeners perceived audio quality is never going to be degraded by inappropriate scaling or anti-aliase filtering. You never have to sit back and think hey...this job could be done with a single external gate, and it saves so much hassle, or maybe I should add some analogue ALC and do a mixed analogue digital ALC. You could imagine the world as a linear system...weather forecast always predicting the weather, electrons always flowing in the same direction...sex always occurring on demand. Unfortunately we awake from inexperienced designer heaven and find the monsterous hell of reality awaits. If it's not in the requirements it's the requirements that are at fault...right? Look behind every statement about high level abstract design and you find a designer thoroughly useless when the shite hits the fan...and the requirements don't cut it or they change...(Whoops no more room on the ASIC...should have written it in the requirements). If I could smack Slayer or Mello'n' every time some useless dickwad OOA (requirements) designer suggested it wasn't his problem because the requirements were wrong they'd be little blood puddles on the sidewalk of forgotten street. Just because you know a technique that doesn't mean your a good system designer. Good designers see more than the thing they immediately work with. They can spot the problems in the product long before they become entrenched reality. They do middle out design (even though it might not immediately be apparent), save mega bucks, lots of unrequired design effort and get plenty of patents for their company for useful things. They're the dude you want on your side when the soldering iron and little clips come out. They're the ones that you want on your side when the boss wonders why the products late. Tools and technique don't replace experience...this is what it's really about.Article: 2453
Hi: I am just beginning to enter the VHDL synthesis field. I would like to get a couple of suggestions for a VHDL editor for use on a Windows PC. I will be writing code for FPGAs at this point but may expand to ASICs in the future. No synthesis tool has yet been chosen but it most likely won't be vendor specific. The simulation tool will be Model Technology's V-System/VHDL for Windows. Please email suggestions. I would also like the location of the FAQ. Regards Larry Ryan Practice Random Acts of Kindness and Senseless Acts of BeautyArticle: 2454
I'm using Synario schematic capture to do a design for a GAL22V10 an dI am using tri-state buffers on the output. Synario is assigning an output pin for the FF output and one for the tri-state buffer output ( I am trying to control the output enable OE fr each FF from one input pin). Is this a problem with Scynario ?? any suggestions ?? thanks in advance cpmArticle: 2455
Knut Tvete wrote: > > Hey, > > I am looking for a 5x5 (or 3x3) median filter with 8 bits input and a > maximum processing rate of 10 Mhz. Is there any comercially available > component for this task or any proposed solutions for implementation in > an FPGA (Xilinx)? > > Knut Tvete > > Senior Scientist > Norwegian Defence Research Establishment > > email: knut.tvete@ffi.no I have designed a median filter for the XC3195 and implimented a simple version of it, 5x5 taking about 40% of the FPGA resource, and operating at about 100x the speed of a software solution. all the sorting was done on the FPGA, but data was fed to it by a transputer. Tim..Article: 2456
I do not appreciate your advertising in this forum. I assume that you know better, and it tempts me to relate my (somewhat dated) opinion of CUPL -- which would NOT generate sales. Mark ByersArticle: 2457
subscribe comp-arch-fpga@super.org gburnore@databasix.comArticle: 2458
subscribe comp-arch-fpga@super.org gburnore@netcom.comArticle: 2459
In article jfv@bbcnews.rd.bbc.co.uk, rtr@rd.bbc.co.uk (Richard Russell) writes: > George Noten (garyk@svpal.svpal.org) wrote: > > : The biggest problem of XABEL is that you cannot use it as a standalone > : design - there is no way to describe IO blocks and internal tristate > : buffers in XABEL. You will have to pull them out of your .abl file > : and use some kind of schematic entry. > > This isn't true: Xilinx document #15778 describes how to do it. I'd quote > from it here, but Xilinx specifically prohibits the document's "dissemination > or distribution" ! I suggest you ask them for a copy. > > Richard. Actually Xabel 5.2 (which was just released) lets you do IO blocks for an FPGA. We just got this release, so I haven't tried it yet. -tomArticle: 2460
I am a member of the VLSI and Systems Technology Laboratory at the University of New South Wales, working on the research and development of hardware and software Co-design, and in particular on the prototyping of the Co-design systems. We are looking for a reconfigurable co-processor board incorporating FPGA devices, which would enable us to realise the hardware part of our designs and then to run the software code, on the host computer system, in conjunction with the board. If any one could suggest a board, preferably using Xilinx devices and that has decent software support, that would be worth looking into. At the moment I'm investigating Giga Operations' Spectrum boards, has anyone had any experience with then, that could give me feedback. Gary Miller VaST Lab University of New South Wales, AustraliaArticle: 2461
Erik Jessen Com-Solutions, Inc. (619) 942-9790 The views expressed here are purely my own.Article: 2462
Cristian - If you would zip up your design and send it to dsa@data-io.com, they'll take care of it. I've already spoken with them about it, and I'm sure we can find a solution. -Tom Bowns Synario Systems Integration Engineering Data I/O Corp.Article: 2463
I've been doing Xilinx design via schematic (DesignWorks) for some time. Now I'm looking into HDL synthesis/simulation and other logic architectures (Actel, Altera, gate array) for the future. Intergraph's VeriBest toolchain has been recommended by some. I've followed the topical literature on Verilog vs. VHDL and read books on both. I'm leaning towards Verilog for ease of use, but would appreciate opinions from people who have produced designs using either HDL. Has anybody had luck using a single front end for more than one FPGA vendor? Has anybody had experience with VeriBest? Any recommendations for other tools in the mid-to-low price market? E-mail responses direct unless you think others will benefit from your comments. (I don't want to burden the group with the banter that often results from soliciting opinion). Sorry if this was the wrong place to ask or if my question is too broad. Thanks in advance, Scott Kroeger Marquette Electronics (scott.kroeger@mei.com)Article: 2464
Knut Tvete (ktv@ffi.no) wrote: : Hey, : I am looking for a 5x5 (or 3x3) median filter with 8 bits input and a : maximum processing rate of 10 Mhz. Is there any comercially available : component for this task or any proposed solutions for implementation in : an FPGA (Xilinx)? : Knut Tvete : Senior Scientist : Norwegian Defence Research Establishment : email: knut.tvete@ffi.no Harris Semiconductor has a commercial device that I am currently using which is a 3x3 Convolver all it requires is a processor interface to write coefficients to it The Part no. is HSP48908. You might find it more convienient to do this than create your own special part. O f course it all depends on how many bits you want to convolve. - Ralph Watson Email: rwwatson@ti.com Systems Group: Texas InstrumentsArticle: 2465
I've designed in both; I like VHDL; it's a bit more structured, and has some things I like. Verilog is less typing. For an FPGA-size design, it will be mainly a matter of taste, and which tools are available for which language. I'd go for the best tools: you'll spend a lot more time debugging wrong tools, than you will spend time coding in the "wrong" language. Typing is a pretty small part of the overall process. > >Has anybody had luck using a single front end for more than one FPGA >vendor? We were pretty happy with Exemplar synthesizing VHDL into Xilinx and Altera. >Has anybody had experience with VeriBest? Never used. >Any recommendations for other tools in the mid-to-low price market? Modeltech is a great PC-based simulator for VHDL. >E-mail responses direct unless you think others will benefit from >your comments. (I don't want to burden the group with the banter >that often results from soliciting opinion). Erik Jessen Com-Solutions, Inc. (619) 942-9790 The views expressed here are purely my own.Article: 2466
In article <4a4hot$bv2@mozz.unh.edu>, pss1@hopper.unh.edu (Paul S Secinaro) says: >The XC5000 is supposed to have some sort of new routing structure in >the I/O ring to reduce pinout problems. Don't know much about it, >though. > The VersaRing (don't we all love marketing) allows any of the I/Os to routed around the periphary of the chip to get to the logic it needs to. tonyArticle: 2467
>In article <49d6mo$ju2@bmerhc5e.bnr.ca>, > crm182c@bmers2da.bnr.ca (Hing-Fai Lee) wrote: >>In article <ssikdar.21.00006806@best.com>, Som Sikdar <ssikdar@best.com> >wrote: >>> >>>Is there any VHDL/Verilog source available in the public domain for >byte-wise >> >>Parallel CRC computation was a favorite topic in Computer Design from the >>late 60s to early 70s. Check it out in your local library. Good Luck. >>Hing-Fai >Please check an excellent aricle about generalized solutions to Parallel CRC >computing in : IEEE Micro of Octobel 1990 : "Parallel CRC Generation" by Guido >Albertengo & Riccardo Sisto, pages 63-71. Some understanding of Z transforms >is required. But, it gives you a generic solution >Alex Koegel >DSPC Israel Some other references include: "Handbook of Computer Communications Standards", Local Network Standards, Volume 2 by William Stallings and "C Programmers Guide to NetBIOS" The second book contains C code for computing CRCs of various kinds, including CRC-32. Using this code, you can derive the exclusive-or tree needed for the diagram below: --------- | | --------- Input Byte =====>| XOR | | | (parallel) | |=====>| CRC | | tree | | |======> CRC-32 out =====>| | | reg | | (parallel) | | | | | | | --------- --------- | | | ================================== Of course, you need to also provide controls for initalizing the register to All-1s (pre-conditioning), complenting result and append to frame (transmit post-conditioning, and compare for good frame residue (receive post-condition). The proper "magic number" for the residue is 0xDEBB20E3. The depth of the exclusive-or tree is about 8 (If I remember). This may limit the maximum clock rate you can achieve per byte to the CRC accumulator. Good Luck! -- Fred Schimmel (609)461-8100 ext. 5060 | email: schimmel@gandalf.ca Gandalf Systems Corporation |------------------------------- 501 Delran Parkway | Objects in mirror are Delran NJ 08075 USA | closer than they appear!Article: 2468
> The depth of the exclusive-or tree is about 8 (If I remember). This may limit > the maximum clock rate you can achieve per byte to the CRC accumulator. I missed the first part of this thread, so I do not know if you are intending to use an FPGA to realize your parallel CRC32. If you are, you may find that a bit or digit serial solution attains better performance with less logic. This is due to the prop delays associated with the routing and logic cells. The serial solution to CRC is extremely compact and should run darn close to the maximum toggle freq of the FPGA. Of course all this presupposes the ability to get ahold of a suitable multiple of your data clock! Look for my presentation at Design Supercon '96 on building high performance bit serial processors in FPGAs. -Ray Andraka Chairman, the Andraka Consulting Group 401/884-7930 FAX 401/884-7950 email randraka@ids.net The Andraka Consulting Group is a digital hardware design firm specializing in high performance FPGA designs. Services include complete design, development, simulation, and integration of these devices and the surrounding circuits. We also evaluate,troubleshoot, and improve existing designs. Please call or write for a free brochure.Article: 2469
Hello, Can anyone supply me with the circuit diagram, or the list of connections for the PC printer port download cable, supplied with the Lattice ISP starter kit? Please e-mail because my newsfeed is a bit unreliable. TIA - Brian Drummond.Article: 2470
In article <4a8e7p$hm2@mirv.unsw.edu.au>, <garym@smta.demon.co.uk> writes: > I am a member of the VLSI and Systems Technology Laboratory at the University > of New South Wales, working on the research and development of hardware and > software Co-design, and in particular on the prototyping of the Co-design > systems. > > We are looking for a reconfigurable co-processor board incorporating FPGA > devices, which would enable us to realise the hardware part of our designs and > then to run the software code, on the host computer system, in conjunction > with the board. > > If any one could suggest a board, preferably using Xilinx devices and that has > decent software support, that would be worth looking into. > > At the moment I'm investigating Giga Operations' Spectrum boards, has anyone > had any experience with then, that could give me feedback. > > Gary Miller > VaST Lab > University of New South Wales, Australia > > Take a look at our SMT219 product on our web pages. If you have questions let me know. Mark Cartlidge Sundance Multiprocessor Technology Ltd. 4 Market Square, Amersham, Bucks, HP7 0DQ, United Kingdom OFFICE: Tel: +44-1444-881898 Fax: +44-1444-881786 HQ: Tel: +44-1494-431203 Fax: +44-1494-793168 mic@smta.demon.co.uk : sales@sundance.com : mic@sundance.com www: http://www.sundance.com/Article: 2471
alexk@dspis.co.il (Alex Koegel) writes: >In article <49d6mo$ju2@bmerhc5e.bnr.ca>, > crm182c@bmers2da.bnr.ca (Hing-Fai Lee) wrote: >>In article <ssikdar.21.00006806@best.com>, Som Sikdar <ssikdar@best.com> >wrote: >>> >>>Is there any VHDL/Verilog source available in the public domain for >byte-wise >> >>Parallel CRC computation was a favorite topic in Computer Design from the >>late 60s to early 70s. Check it out in your local library. Good Luck. >>Hing-Fai >Please check an excellent aricle about generalized solutions to Parallel CRC >computing in : IEEE Micro of Octobel 1990 : "Parallel CRC Generation" by Guido >Albertengo & Riccardo Sisto, pages 63-71. Some understanding of Z transforms >is required. But, it gives you a generic solution >Alex Koegel >DSPC Israel Some other references include: "Handbook of Computer Communications Standards", Local Network Standards, Volume 2 by William Stallings and "C Programmers Guide to NetBIOS" The second book contains C code for computing CRCs of various kinds, including CRC-32. Using this code, you can derive the exclusive-or tree needed for the diagram below: --------- | | --------- Input Byte =====>| XOR | | | (parallel) | |=====>| CRC | | tree | | |======> CRC-32 out =====>| | | reg | | (parallel) | | | | | | | --------- --------- | | | ================================== Of course, you need to also provide controls for initalizing the register to All-1s (pre-conditioning), complenting result and append to frame (transmit post-conditioning, and compare for good frame residue (receive post-condition). The proper "magic number" for the residue is 0xDEBB20E3. The depth of the exclusive-or tree is about 8 (If I remember). This may limit the maximum clock rate you can achieve per byte to the CRC accumulator. Good Luck! -- Fred Schimmel (609)461-8100 ext. 5060 | email: schimmel@gandalf.ca Gandalf Systems Corporation |------------------------------- 501 Delran Parkway | Objects in mirror are Delran NJ 08075 USA | closer than they appear!Article: 2472
Hi! Is anyone running PALASM under OS/2? If so what settings are you using? I have some problems in getting PALASM to run properly under the OS/2 platform. Please mail me your idea's, I have seldom time to look in these newsgroups! Regards David OlssonArticle: 2473
!!! "It's not a BUG, jcooley@world.std.com /o o\ / it's a FEATURE!" (508) 429-4357 ( > ) \ - / "YIKES! Need Help On Synopsys Report Card" _] [_ Holliston Poor Farm, P.O. Box 6222, Holliston, MA 01746-6222 HELP! As the president of the Users Society for Electronic Design Automation (USE/DA) I foolishly signed up to do a detailed report card on Mentor Graphics a while ago. I'm the same guy who did the same survey on Cadence for their user's group meeting. I got some interesting results but don't want to release them until this Synopsys survey is done so they don't influence each other. What I need from you, as a Synopsys user, is to tell me exactly how you feel about various aspects of doing business with Synopsys. To keep things fair I'm going to only take responses customers send that come to me within three days of my publishing this questionaire -- just like what I did for the Cadence & Mentor surveys. ALL CUSTOMER INPUT WILL BE USED ANONYMOUSLY. (That is, I'll report *what* customers think but not exactly *who* said it.) My goal is to provide a balanced report card that contains not only where Synopsys has messed up, but also where they're doing a good job. I'm an ASIC designer so I'd like to ask that you be as specific as possible in what you say. If you love/hate specific things Synopsys does/offers, I want to hear the specifics. Feel free to respond on anything, but to get you in an evaluation frame of mind, I'll ask: Please Report Your Primary Interest In Synopsys Tools (ASIC design, ECL, Low Power IC design, RTL simulation, FPGA, etc):_________ 1.) What tools do you specifically use (by name)?: 2.) What does your company make/sell? 3.) Where are you? (City, State, Country)? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.) What do you think of Synopsys's on-line & hard copy documentation? Is it usually very helpful & complete, out-to-lunch, or what? 2.) What do you think of Synopsys's hotline? What's the typical turnaround you get for your questions? Do you feel that you get access to knowlegable experts or new college graduates most of the time? What do you think of their "We'll call you back" way of running the hotline? How many times have you had to use it in a typical month? 3.) What do you think of Synopsys's local support in your area? Are they around after your company bought the tool? Are they helpful? 4.) What do you think of Synopsys's electronic connectivity? How about their WWW page? "ESNUG" ? 5.) What do you think about Synopsys Consulting Services? Has your company lost employees to this? Have they solved your problems? Do you like Synopsys offering such services that might mean doing design for your company? 6.) What do you think about Synopsys training? Have you used their classes? Were they very helpful, a complete waste of time or somewhere in between? Please be specific. 7.) How do you feel about the Synopsys sales force? Do they talk to you or are they only interested in your VP of Engineering? Do they help you through business problems year round or only when there a potential sale in the works? Going from GREAT to HORRIBLE please rank them equal to (choose one) - "Ghandi has serious competition compared to my Synopsys saleman!" (or) - "I want to base my whole life philosophy around you." friends (or) - "Please!, Marry my daughter!" good friends (or) - Helpful friends (or) - Helpful business acqaintances (or) - Helpful Deparment store cashiers (or) - Indifferent Department store cashiers (or) - New Car salesmen (or) - Door-to-Door vacuum cleaner salesmen (or) - Used Car salesmen (or) - Con artists just a few steps ahead of the law (or) - Congressmen and/or convicted con-artists 8.) What's the most POSTIVE Synopsys related experience you've had? If you were made "Aart-De-Geus-for-a-day," what would you NOT change about Synopsys? 9.) What's the most NEGATIVE Synopsys related experience you've had? If you were made "Aart-De-Geus-for-a-day," what would you change about Synopsys? 10.) What specifically do you techinally like about their tools? What's their best tool? What's their worst tool? Why? (Give details.) 11.) Do Synopsys's point tools play nice with other Synopsys point tools? Do Synopsys point tools play nice with non-Synopsys tools? (Give specifics.) 12.) Overall, how you rank Synopsys compared to other EDA companies you've dealt with? Far better, far worst, about average? Again, my asking these questions is to get you to tell me what you think about Synopsys as a whole and concerning specific products & services they offer. No names nor sources will be used in reporting the general user views of Synopsys. Thank you for your time! :^) - John Cooley Part Time EDA Consumer Advocate Full Time ASIC, FPGA & EDA Design Consultant =========================================================================== Trapped trying to figure out a Synopsys bug? Want to hear how 3713 other users dealt with it ? Then join the E-Mail Synopsys Users Group (ESNUG)! !!! "It's not a BUG, jcooley@world.std.com /o o\ / it's a FEATURE!" (508) 429-4357 ( > ) \ - / - John Cooley, EDA & ASIC Design Consultant in Synopsys, _] [_ Verilog, VHDL and numerous Design Methodologies. Holliston Poor Farm, P.O. Box 6222, Holliston, MA 01746-6222 Legal Disclaimer: "As always, anything said here is only opinion."Article: 2474
>If your software is doing that, you are probably using more than one product >term for the OE. If you look at the block diagram for the 22V10, you'll notice >that the OE wiring, only accepts a single product term. Try simplifying the >equation for the OE. Take advantage of dummy terms, if you can find any. >Frank thanks for your suggestion ... it was a very simple solution, I did not have to change my design ! I called the people at Data I/O and they were very prompt in their response. It was a simple 2 file patch that fixed the problem. They emailed the 2 files and I got it fixed the same day. thanks cpm
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