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Messages from 74775

Article: 74775
Subject: Re: Open-Source MicroBlaze IP-Core working in FPGA :)
From: rickman <spamgoeshere4@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 21:40:55 -0400
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Antti Lukats wrote:
> 
> "rickman" <spamgoeshere4@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:4172C4C1.7EB97771@yahoo.com...
> [snip]
> 
> > > NIOS-1 GPL2 licensing
> > > http://www.eecg.toronto.edu/~plavec/utnios.html
> > >
> > > NIOS-II verilog also exists, but it will not be GPL ;)
> >
> > I see that you have a benchmark to download.  Is there any clock speed
> > info on your design?  I would be interested in how fast it can run in an
> > ACEX EP1K part.  How many LEs is it?  Does it include the 16 bit
> > version?
> 
> Hi Rick,
> 
> the NIOS-GPL includes CPU C-benchmarks, not FPGA benchmarking or statistics
> there the NIOS-1 is seems to be a university project - I simply just found
> it - haha just enter "NIOS verilog source" into google and that the 3rd hit!
> 
> the design clamis to be 1:1 drop in replacement for Altera NIOS and it looks
> that is not 100% clean room implementation, so I guess the GPL license is
> actual invalid because of that.
> 
> The NIOS-1 GPL uses altera memprims, and I havent yet checked it with any
> synthesis tools.
> 
> The NIOS-II, thats different, its completly clean-room design, uses no
> vendor primitives at all. some statistic are in my latest post about the
> NIOX core ;) no FPGA tests yet with NIOX (NI*S II compatible) cpu yet. with
> no optimization the NIOX looks like 60MHz+ in slow Virtex devices.

Is the NIOX core non-public from UT?  Or is this another core?  

-- 

Rick "rickman" Collins

rick.collins@XYarius.com
Ignore the reply address. To email me use the above address with the XY
removed.

Arius - A Signal Processing Solutions Company
Specializing in DSP and FPGA design      URL http://www.arius.com
4 King Ave                               301-682-7772 Voice
Frederick, MD 21701-3110                 301-682-7666 FAX

Article: 74776
Subject: Re: Metastability pipeline causes bad juju
From: rickman <spamgoeshere4@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 21:43:42 -0400
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Johan Bernspång wrote:
> 
> Chris wrote:
> 
> >       >> Chipscope Pro(tm) sure beats using a logic analyzer
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Maybe I'll try this out, it looks like it might be worthwhile.
> >
> 
> It sure is worthwhile. I have a system which needs approx. 100 hours to
> simulate 500 us in ModelSim. Doing the same thing in Chipscope takes 500
> us and gives me the essence of the results. Yes, I'm currently using the
> free version of ModelSim XE, but Hey!

WOW!  I have no idea what is going on in 100 hours.  I am simulating
about 800 LEs and 5 blocks of memory, plus a test bench and it takes
less than a minute per 5 uS of simulation.  

-- 

Rick "rickman" Collins

rick.collins@XYarius.com
Ignore the reply address. To email me use the above address with the XY
removed.

Arius - A Signal Processing Solutions Company
Specializing in DSP and FPGA design      URL http://www.arius.com
4 King Ave                               301-682-7772 Voice
Frederick, MD 21701-3110                 301-682-7666 FAX

Article: 74777
Subject: Re: Open-Source MicroBlaze IP-Core working in FPGA :)
From: rickman <spamgoeshere4@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 22:12:05 -0400
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Jim Granville wrote:
> 
> rickman wrote:
> > Antti Lukats wrote:
> >
> >>the design clamis to be 1:1 drop in replacement for Altera NIOS and it looks
> >>that is not 100% clean room implementation, so I guess the GPL license is
> >>actual invalid because of that.
> >>
> >>The NIOS-1 GPL uses altera memprims, and I havent yet checked it with any
> >>synthesis tools.
> >>
> >>The NIOS-II, thats different, its completly clean-room design, uses no
> >>vendor primitives at all. some statistic are in my latest post about the
> >>NIOX core ;) no FPGA tests yet with NIOX (NI*S II compatible) cpu yet. with
> >>no optimization the NIOX looks like 60MHz+ in slow Virtex devices.
> >
> >
> > I know the NIOS-1 was designed to run in the ACEX parts as well as the
> > Cyclone and others.   Altera did not designed NIOS-II for the ACEX
> > parts, I also don't think it comes in a 16 bit version.
> 
> No, but they do show 3 versions, claiming <600  <1,300  <1,800 LEs
> 
> I could not find a size for the JTAG Debug module, as I doubt
> they include that in these numbers ?
> 
> > I have a need for a small, fast MCU.  I have been designing my own to use with the
> > Forth language.
> 
> Interesting, and sounds usefull.
> Do you have Size/Speed indications ?

I have done a redesign to change some features and have not synthesized
it since.  Before that it was around 700-800 LEs, IIRC, without
optimizing.  I expect this is up a bit, but I plan to optimize some
parts of the design that don't synthesize well, the muxes mainly.  They
can map to the cascade chain for best speed and size.  I am shooting for
80 MHz if I can improve the muxes and the decode. 


> Could you take the 600LE NIOS and use the <= 256 user opcode support,
> for better Forth support ?

600 LEs is a very small design, but I don't know if it will be that
small in an ACEX since the LE structure is a bit different from newer
parts.  The ACEX parts are basically the same as the even older EP10K
family. 


> > But the software side is a bit of work.  The Altera
> > site mentions some pretty high speeds for NIOS-1, but when you research
> > it the speed doesn't even reach 40 MHz in the ACEX parts.  I wondered if
> > the alternate version runs any faster.
> >
> > I think all of these soft CPUs are a bit larger than what I would like
> > to see.  So for now, I'll stick with what I have.
> 
>   Part of this is 'creeping featurism', as well as a general industry
> trend to skip 16 bits, plus the design is easier if the data size
> matches the PC size.
>   24 bits is supported in some DSPs, tho probably does not
> map into the Blocks seen in most FPGAs.
> 
> Maybe an 18 bit Opcode and PC would be a better FPGA medium-core ?
> Would top out at ~4MBit code store, and a soft CPU optimised to
> run from a serial memory would be an interesting direction.

You mean 18 bit word size, not opcode, right?  


-- 

Rick "rickman" Collins

rick.collins@XYarius.com
Ignore the reply address. To email me use the above address with the XY
removed.

Arius - A Signal Processing Solutions Company
Specializing in DSP and FPGA design      URL http://www.arius.com
4 King Ave                               301-682-7772 Voice
Frederick, MD 21701-3110                 301-682-7666 FAX

Article: 74778
Subject: Re: which xilinx CPLD to select?
From: rickman <spamgoeshere4@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 22:13:49 -0400
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
I am confused.  I thought the OP was looking for 5 volt tolerant chips,
no?   I am pretty sure the MAX-II is not 5 volt tolerant.  Or is it??? 
If it is, I would like to know more about the intro schedule.  When is
the LPM2210 planned?  


"Paul Leventis (at home)" wrote:
> 
> Hi Vax,
> 
> First, I should point out that Altera's mature MAX 7000 family is likely
> sufficient and widely available.  The MAX 7000S is a 5.0V device with up to
> 256 macrocells.  The MAX 7000AE is a 3.3V device with up to 512 macrocells.
> Both are available in a wide array of cheap, easy-to-use packages.
> 
> The new low-cost Max II family from Altera also meets many of your
> requirements.  Max II is 3.3V compatible (both power rail voltage and I/O
> voltage).  The EPM570 device offers 570 LEs, or roughly 440 macrocells.  It
> is supported by the free Quartus II Web Edition software, available from our
> web site.  There are three packages: a 100-pin TQFP (with 76 user I/Os), a
> 144-pin TQFP (with 116 user I/Os), and a 256-pin FBGA (with 160 user I/Os).
> 
> The downside is that you can't buy the EPM570 today -- only the EPM1270 is
> available.  But it is shipping in a pin-compatible 144-pin TQFP, so you
> could prototype with it and plug in a EPM570 in early 2005 when it is
> available.  I don't know the unit prices of any of our chips so I can't help
> you out there.
> 
> If we get the Web Edition software from www.altera.com, you can try out all
> of our CPLD families to see how they do for density & performance.  Your
> VHDL should work (provided it is generic) in any of our devices.
> 
> > BTW, is it easy to move a CPLD design (VHDL) to FPGA? It has mostly adders
> > (5 MHz or lower) and state machines (20MHz). Thanks. If so, would you also
> > let me know what FPGA family to look at, with those requirements applied?
> 
> Max II's core fabric is more like an FPGA -- it uses LUT-based Logic
> Elements (LEs) instead of AND-OR macrocells.  It also features a segmented,
> island-style routing architecture instead of the global fabrics found in
> older CPLD families.  This family is perfect for you needs.
> 
> Generic VHDL should run push-button on Max II, or any other CPLD/FPGA
> product from pretty much any vendor.  Just change the target device & push
> compile!  And the speed targets you mention are slow by modern FPGA/CPLD
> standards, so they sound doable.
> 
> Good luck,
> 
> Paul Leventis
> Altera Corp.

-- 

Rick "rickman" Collins

rick.collins@XYarius.com
Ignore the reply address. To email me use the above address with the XY
removed.

Arius - A Signal Processing Solutions Company
Specializing in DSP and FPGA design      URL http://www.arius.com
4 King Ave                               301-682-7772 Voice
Frederick, MD 21701-3110                 301-682-7666 FAX

Article: 74779
Subject: Re: Introducing MANIK - a 32 bit Soft-Core RISC Processor
From: "Antti Lukats" <antti@case2000.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 19:14:06 -0700
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>

"Jon Beniston" <jon@beniston.com> wrote in message
news:e87b9ce8.0410180542.cf7be60@posting.google.com...
> "Antti Lukats" <antti@case2000.com> wrote in message
news:<ckrbh1$kn7$04$1@news.t-online.com>...
> > > Netlists, Documentation and Development tools can be downloaded from
> > > http://www.niktech.com.
> >
> > 1) are you going to release the HDL sources?
>
> Similarly to you Antti, are you going to be releasing the HDL source for
NIOX?
>
> Cheers,
> Jon

Hi Jon,

lets put it that way, NIOX sources are obtainable ;)

Antti



Article: 74780
Subject: Re: Constrained Random Value in verilog
From: sharp@cadence.com (Steven Sharp)
Date: 18 Oct 2004 19:41:26 -0700
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
gabor@alacron.com (Gabor Szakacs) wrote in message news:<8a436ba2.0410181001.2f80854a@posting.google.com>...
> If you only need two output values you really want a single
> bit random function which returns 0 or 1.
> Then use that bit to select -5 or +5 something like:
> reg rval;
> integer seed;
> integer port;
> 
> forever begin
>   seed = 1;
>   rval = $random (seed);
>   port = rval ? +5 : -5;
>   . . . 
> end

The approach to selecting between two values is good.  However,
if you keep resetting seed to 1 every time before you call $random,
you will get the same (nonrandom) result every time too.

Article: 74781
Subject: Re: Open-Source MicroBlaze IP-Core working in FPGA :)
From: Jim Granville <no.spam@designtools.co.nz>
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 16:08:21 +1300
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
rickman wrote:
<snip>
>>Could you take the 600LE NIOS and use the <= 256 user opcode support,
>>for better Forth support ?
> 
> 
> 600 LEs is a very small design, but I don't know if it will be that
> small in an ACEX since the LE structure is a bit different from newer
> parts.  The ACEX parts are basically the same as the even older EP10K
> family. 

Yes, I guess if it was halfway decent in an older device, Altera would 
have released that - you can be sure they compiled it, to see :)

>>>But the software side is a bit of work.  The Altera
>>>site mentions some pretty high speeds for NIOS-1, but when you research
>>>it the speed doesn't even reach 40 MHz in the ACEX parts.  I wondered if
>>>the alternate version runs any faster.
>>>
>>>I think all of these soft CPUs are a bit larger than what I would like
>>>to see.  So for now, I'll stick with what I have.
>>
>>  Part of this is 'creeping featurism', as well as a general industry
>>trend to skip 16 bits, plus the design is easier if the data size
>>matches the PC size.
>>  24 bits is supported in some DSPs, tho probably does not
>>map into the Blocks seen in most FPGAs.
>>
>>Maybe an 18 bit Opcode and PC would be a better FPGA medium-core ?
>>Would top out at ~4MBit code store, and a soft CPU optimised to
>>run from a serial memory would be an interesting direction.
> 
> 
> You mean 18 bit word size, not opcode, right?  

  Both, as you tend to naturally make the opcode the same size
as the word size. 18 bits allows you to do more with the opcodes,
but still fit into the FPGA memory tiles, and some external memory is
also x18. It also extends the memory reach, so moves the code/data
ceiling further up.
-jg




Article: 74782
Subject: Re: Open-Source MicroBlaze IP-Core working in FPGA :)
From: rickman <spamgoeshere4@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 23:27:19 -0400
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Jim Granville wrote:
> 
> rickman wrote:
> <snip>
> >>Could you take the 600LE NIOS and use the <= 256 user opcode support,
> >>for better Forth support ?
> >
> >
> > 600 LEs is a very small design, but I don't know if it will be that
> > small in an ACEX since the LE structure is a bit different from newer
> > parts.  The ACEX parts are basically the same as the even older EP10K
> > family.
> 
> Yes, I guess if it was halfway decent in an older device, Altera would
> have released that - you can be sure they compiled it, to see :)

Except that to get so small and fast, these designs have to match the
hardware pretty closely.  Since the ACEX parts are a different design
and I expect much of the NIOS-II uses instantiated logic it would be
more work to even fit the design to the part regardless of the resulting
speed or size.  Even if it didn't run well, if it were not much work, I
expect they would release it.  

My guess is the main difference in the NIOS-I and -II is that the -II
takes advantage of the newer features in the newer chips.  

-- 

Rick "rickman" Collins

rick.collins@XYarius.com
Ignore the reply address. To email me use the above address with the XY
removed.

Arius - A Signal Processing Solutions Company
Specializing in DSP and FPGA design      URL http://www.arius.com
4 King Ave                               301-682-7772 Voice
Frederick, MD 21701-3110                 301-682-7666 FAX

Article: 74783
Subject: Re: Introducing MANIK - a 32 bit Soft-Core RISC Processor
From: "Sandeep Dutta" <webmaster@niktech.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 22:10:51 -0700
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
> I completely fail to understand what MANIK brings to the party.

An excellent question ; at the risk of staring a flame war I will say
"code size".  Now, does "code size" matter ? It depends on a lot of
factors, but given the small amounts of BLOCKRAMs available
on a FPGA, it would matter in "most" cases, especially if the
code size saving is substantial.

I have done a comparison with MIPS and to eliminate different libraries
I have compared the sizes of the individual object files. Note the MANIK
tool chain merges text and data section into text section. In both cases
the sizes of the uninitialized global variables are not listed (size
command does not display it).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dhrystone (complied with -O2)
MIPS
           text      data     bss     dec     hex filename
           1363        26       0    1389     56d dhry21a.o
            620         0       0     620     26c dhry21b.o

MANIK
           text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
            919       0       0     919     397 dhry21a.o
            416       0       0     416     1a0 dhry21b.o

While code size is the strongest suite of MANIK; it does have other
goodies; ability to execute multiple instructions simultaneously;
power down mode, built in timer; are just a few of them.

Following is a file by file comparison of a benchmark (099.go) from
the SPEC95 suite (Does not have any uninitialzed globals) . How much
will you save ? Give it a try with the MANIK toolchain .....

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Files of 099.go (from SPEC95 benchmark)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

MIPS
  text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
   3170     863       0    4033     fc1 g2.o
   7824       0       0    7824    1e90 g22.o
  69236     880       0   70116   111e4 g23.o
  64318    1440       0   65758   100de g25.o
   3448       0       0    3448     d78 g26.o
   6804       8       0    6812    1a9c g27a.o
   2596     224       0    2820     b04 g27b.o
  11976       0       0   11976    2ec8 g28.o
  27616       0       0   27616    6be0 g29.o
  19600    1100       0   20700    50dc g2eye.o
      0   49784       0   49784    c278 g2jlib2.o
   7488      12       0    7500    1d4c g2jos.o
   2760       0       0    2760     ac8 g2list.o
   6803    5260       0   12063    2f1f g2reas.o
  12372       0       0   12372    3054 g2s2.o
   4730       4       0    4734    127e g2s3.o
  29600   14484       0   44084    ac34 g2shp.o


MANIK
  text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
   3258       0       0    3258     cba g2.o
   5232       0       0    5232    1470 g22.o
  46320       0       0   46320    b4f0 g23.o
  42522       0       0   42522    a61a g25.o
   2220       0       0    2220     8ac g26.o
   4480       0       0    4480    1180 g27a.o
   1776       0       0    1776     6f0 g27b.o
   7716       0       0    7716    1e24 g28.o
  17784       0       0   17784    4578 g29.o
  13660       0       0   13660    355c g2eye.o
  49784       0       0   49784    c278 g2jlib2.o
   4860       0       0    4860    12fc g2jos.o
   1928       0       0    1928     788 g2list.o
  12064       0       0   12064    2f20 g2reas.o
   8268       0       0    8268    204c g2s2.o
   3874       0       0    3874     f22 g2s3.o
  33712       0       0   33712    83b0 g2shp.o
[
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.niktech.com
Specializing in FPGA based Processors
-----------------------------------------------------------------



Article: 74784
Subject: Re: Xilinx Virtex II MAC & PHY. ( HELP)
From: Guenter Dannoritzer <dan_nospam_noritzer@web.de>
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 07:58:37 +0200
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Tony K wrote:

[snip]

> is not selected). Now I have created an arp entry in the table for my
> board MAC. ex. arp -s 192.168.1.0 00-00-01-02-03-04. I can verify the
> entry its there.  Now when I Ping my board from pc the packet is never
> received. Any help will greatly appreciated. I been working on this
> for couple of days.
> 
> 
> thanks. 
> 
> TONY


If you don't do that already you might run a network sniffer, like
Ethereal http://www.ethereal.com/, to trace what is going on on the network.

Then you will see whether the packet actually leaves your PC.

The IP address that you posted is actually a network address. You might
try to use 192.168.1.1.

BTW, what is IP address and subnet mask of the PC?

Guenter



Article: 74785
Subject: Re: spartan 3 on 4 layers
From: hmurray@suespammers.org (Hal Murray)
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 02:26:15 -0500
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
>Our SSO rules assume you have dedicated planes for Vccint, Vcco.  If you 
>do not have both a power and a ground plane for each of these supplies, 
>the SSO numbers must be reduced.  This also goes for simultaneously 
>switching CLBs, and not just IOs.  We assume a power and ground plane 
>(yes that would be four layers just for power) for low inductance on the 
>Vccint/Vcco.

That seems reasonable, but it's awful short on specifics.

How big does the plane have to be?  Are you assuming power/gnd pairs?
If so, what spacing between the pairs?  Which plane/pair needs
to be closest to the chip?

Is there a procedure for computing the SSO rules given non-optimal
power planes?

Wise-ass mode would be:
  What page of the data sheet describes the details?


Let's go at it from the other direction.  What are the chances of
making a solid PCI card on a 4 layer board?  Assume a TQFP-208
package and assume that the PCI side is the major SSO problem
and that the routing on the non-PCI signals is easy.


I haven't done it, but I think you can get a reasonable layout
in 4 layers with a TQFP package.  I'm assuming that the routing
to the signal pins from the rest of the design is easy.
(That's "reasonable" to my imagination/eyeball.  Reality might
be totally different.)

The idea is that the top/bottom layers under the chip are not
needed for routing so you can fill them with copper to get
a tiny plane.  It's probably not big enough to do much good,
as a plane, but it will be a solid connection for all the
appropriate power/gnd pins and bypass caps.

It would be interesting to see how good that chunk of plane
approach is compared to placing bypass caps right next to each
pair of power/ground pins (with tight routing and fat traces).


I've got a cheap modem PCI card handy.  Looks like it's only
2 layers.

-- 
The suespammers.org mail server is located in California.  So are all my
other mailboxes.  Please do not send unsolicited bulk e-mail or unsolicited
commercial e-mail to my suespammers.org address or any of my other addresses.
These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's.  I hate spam.


Article: 74786
Subject: Re: Metastability pipeline causes bad juju
From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Johan_Bernsp=E5ng?= <xjohbex@xfoix.se>
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 09:36:58 +0200
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
rickman wrote:

> WOW!  I have no idea what is going on in 100 hours.  I am simulating
> about 800 LEs and 5 blocks of memory, plus a test bench and it takes
> less than a minute per 5 uS of simulation. =20
>=20

Well, it's a quite large design sampling the input at 200 MHz (from an=20
ADC), CIC filters, LP FIRs, CORDIC, BP FIRs etc. I.e. lots of=20
calculations for my poor ModelSim.

Earlier in the design cycle I've been trying to avoid simulations due to =

the complexity of the system. But I gave it a try anyway since I was=20
occupied with some other stuff for a few days...
--=20
-----------------------------------------------
Johan Bernsp=E5ng, xjohbex@xfoix.se
Research engineer, embedded systems

Totalf=F6rsvarets forskningsinstitut
Swedish Defence Research Agency

Please remove the x's in the email address if
replying to me personally.
-----------------------------------------------

Article: 74787
Subject: Re: ANN: Introducing MANIK - a 32 bit Soft-Core RISC Processor
From: bastian42@yahoo.com (42Bastian Schick)
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 08:40:04 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>

>Yes we have plans of porting Operating Systems to the processor;
>uC/OS and uClinux seem to be good choices for a CPU like
>MANIK.

Sciopta (the company I work for) should be easyly ported.
(If code-size and speed matters :-)
A reason why I downloaded the GCC :-)
-- 
42Bastian
Do not email to bastian42@yahoo.com, it's a spam-only account :-)
Use <same-name>@epost.de instead !

Article: 74788
Subject: Re: NI*S II-verilog in Virtex FPGA
From: jon@beniston.com (Jon Beniston)
Date: 19 Oct 2004 01:44:29 -0700
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
tails_naf@yahoo.com (Tails) wrote in message news:<987636ca.0410171546.15d5b86b@posting.google.com>...
> So Antti, 
> Can you answer the burning question:
> Does a Spartan-3 Nios-II beat a 
> cyclone Microblaze in performance/area?
> How do the two compare?

Well, I have been working on my own CPU. It runs at 88MHz in a Spartan
3 and 115MHz in a Cyclone II (fastest speed grade for both devices /
post-layout timing). Given this is pretty much the same frequency
(maybe a little faster :) ) as is achieved by MicroBlaze and NIOS II,
I would say that they are very likely to achieve similar results if
implemented in their competitors devices. This isn't really too much
of a surprise given that both processors are quite similar.

Cheers,
Jon

Article: 74789
Subject: Re: How many Altera LE's to Xilinx Slices????
From: "Walter Gallegos" <walter@chasque.apc.org>
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 07:36:22 -0200
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
>> Fire your synthesize tool and see how much resources you'd really need!

Yes, this is my point,
Both structures have different resources, when write your code; your code
stile make the difference.

Walter.


"Arash Salarian" <arash.salarian@epfl.ch> a écrit dans le message de
news:417397f6$1@epflnews.epfl.ch...
> "Walter Gallegos" <walter@chasque.apc.org> wrote in message
> news:10n2h60q87tig87@news.supernews.com...
> > The answare is
> >
> >      1 slice into a Spartan 3
> >    16 LE   into a MAX-II
> >
> > Can you compare this architectures as  1 Slice = 2 LE's  ?
> >
>
> I agree that there some areas that you can't simply compare the two
> architectures. For example, I had an old design with an Altera 10K series
> that used a fully async RAM block. Now, move it to a Spartan 3
architecture
> and you see that you should use the whole chip just to make that block of
> async RAM!
> However, it is perfectly understandable that a user might need to compare
> different available options and to do this, he/she would need to have
rough
> estimates to compare a Xilinx device to that of Altera. For example,
> recently I had this interesting offer for a an FPGA prototype  board with
> the same price of $99 for an Altern EP1C12 or a Xilinx XC3S400. I would
like
> to use a prototype board for very different designs so I had to compare
> between the two chips. As I program in VHDL and use synthesize tools, I
> don't really care for any specific architecture (unless something like
your
> example or my example above happens) and the thing that matters in cases
> like that is you only look for the BIGGER FPGA. To do it, you need to
> compare and to compare you can only use rough estimates.
> Personally, I find the simple equation of 1 Slice = 2 LE a very good rough
> estimate and for many designs it gives you a good answer. You have a very
> specific design and need a very good answer? Fire your synthesize tool and
> see how much resources you'd really need!
>
>



Article: 74790
Subject: Feeding PLL
From: ALuPin@web.de (ALuPin)
Date: 19 Oct 2004 03:32:07 -0700
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Hi @ all,

is it possible to feed the input of a second PLL (Cyclone EP1C12)
with an output clock (for example c0) of the first PLL ?

I mean the two PLLs are positioned in opposed banks.

Or can PLLs only be fed with external clocks on dedicated clock pins?

Thank you for your help.

Rgds
André

Article: 74791
Subject: Experiences with SPARTAN3?
From: thomas.bartzick@atlanticzeiser.com (Thomas Bartzick)
Date: 19 Oct 2004 04:58:34 -0700
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Hello together,

has anyone experience with tristates in SPARTAN3-fpgas?
If we implement a schematic-oriented structure we won't get any
error-messages but only warnings and the design will be compiled fine.
But it seems that all our tristate outputs are driven permanently
(which is very bad!).

Hints are very appreciated!

Thanks,

Thomas.

Article: 74792
Subject: alternatives to xst-map
From: "Jan Bruns" <post@abnuto.de>
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 13:58:41 +0200
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Hallo,

I'm a bit unsatisfied with the "xst 5.2"-design flow for xilinx.

For example, when targeting for SpartanII, "map" isn't able to
implement the ROM64x1 primitive, although the device has
F5mux and F6mux, so one could code a ROM64X1 äquivalent macro
by hand.
A more important example is the SRL16 and RAM16X1S primitives. Again,
it's "map" reporting, that SRL16 + RAM16X1S aren't supported on F-LUT
of a slice on SpartanII, although the SpartanII Data Sheet
unmistakeable states:
| In addition to operating as a function generator, each LUT can
| provide a 16 x 1-bit synchronous RAM. [...]
| The Spartan-II LUT can also provide a 16-bit shift register
| that is ideal for capturing high-speed or burst-mode data.

I plan to design using mostly self-made tools, and upto now, my plan
was to feed completly mapped (but only relativly placed and only partially
routed) CLB-lists through HDL into the xst-flow.

Any suggestions on alternative ways to do this?

Furthermore, I'm still searching for exact documentation (hopefully in
machine-readable form) of xilinx-device resources. What about these
".spd",".nph",".pkg",".dll",".acd",".usg",".bsd",".lib"-files?

Gruss

Jan Bruns





Article: 74793
Subject: Re: a pci implemenation problem, thanks
From: "NoThisRAT" <nothisrat@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 20:02:45 +0800
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
  I have implemented the read/write operation, but I still cant get the bar
assignment:( there is some problem: I can see my card under windows (but
bar0 not assigned), but I can not see the card by BIOS. ( from the table on
the screen after POST before boot OS)
  what's the problem??
  BTW: I dont implement the interrupt pin.



Article: 74794
Subject: Re: Experiences with SPARTAN3?
From: Nicolas Matringe <matringe.nicolas@numeri-cable.fr>
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 14:23:17 +0200
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Thomas Bartzick a écrit:
> Hello together,
> 
> has anyone experience with tristates in SPARTAN3-fpgas?
> If we implement a schematic-oriented structure we won't get any
> error-messages but only warnings and the design will be compiled fine.
> But it seems that all our tristate outputs are driven permanently
> (which is very bad!).

I have just finished a VHDL PCI design in a Spartan3 and so far it works 
(tests are still in progress but tristate outputs are OK)

-- 
  ____  _  __  ___
|  _  \_)/ _|/ _ \   Adresse de retour invalide: retirez le -
| | | | | (_| |_| |  Invalid return address: remove the -
|_| |_|_|\__|\___/


Article: 74795
Subject: direction of carry and shift chains in xilinx & Altera
From: digari@dacafe.com (digari)
Date: 19 Oct 2004 06:49:19 -0700
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
i was just looking at virtex and stratix architectures. i observed
that direction of carry chain is bottom to top and direction of shift
chain is top to bottom for virtex devices, whereas it appears that
both are in the same direction in stratix.

Just wondering if it is just a coincidence or is this intentional?

Article: 74796
Subject: Re: spartan 3 on 4 layers
From: Austin Lesea <austin@xilinx.com>
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 07:51:14 -0700
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Hal,

For specifics, please read:

http://www.support.xilinx.com/products/design_resources/highspeed_design/resource/si_power.htm

SSO guidelines are on page 23 of:

http://direct.xilinx.com/bvdocs/publications/ds099-3.pdf

Austin


Hal Murray wrote:
>>Our SSO rules assume you have dedicated planes for Vccint, Vcco.  If you 
>>do not have both a power and a ground plane for each of these supplies, 
>>the SSO numbers must be reduced.  This also goes for simultaneously 
>>switching CLBs, and not just IOs.  We assume a power and ground plane 
>>(yes that would be four layers just for power) for low inductance on the 
>>Vccint/Vcco.
> 
> 
> That seems reasonable, but it's awful short on specifics.
> 
> How big does the plane have to be?  Are you assuming power/gnd pairs?
> If so, what spacing between the pairs?  Which plane/pair needs
> to be closest to the chip?
> 
> Is there a procedure for computing the SSO rules given non-optimal
> power planes?
> 
> Wise-ass mode would be:
>   What page of the data sheet describes the details?
> 
> 
> Let's go at it from the other direction.  What are the chances of
> making a solid PCI card on a 4 layer board?  Assume a TQFP-208
> package and assume that the PCI side is the major SSO problem
> and that the routing on the non-PCI signals is easy.
> 
> 
> I haven't done it, but I think you can get a reasonable layout
> in 4 layers with a TQFP package.  I'm assuming that the routing
> to the signal pins from the rest of the design is easy.
> (That's "reasonable" to my imagination/eyeball.  Reality might
> be totally different.)
> 
> The idea is that the top/bottom layers under the chip are not
> needed for routing so you can fill them with copper to get
> a tiny plane.  It's probably not big enough to do much good,
> as a plane, but it will be a solid connection for all the
> appropriate power/gnd pins and bypass caps.
> 
> It would be interesting to see how good that chunk of plane
> approach is compared to placing bypass caps right next to each
> pair of power/ground pins (with tight routing and fat traces).
> 
> 
> I've got a cheap modem PCI card handy.  Looks like it's only
> 2 layers.
> 

Article: 74797
Subject: Re: spartan 3 on 4 layers
From: "Symon" <symon_brewer@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 10:51:32 -0700
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
"Hal Murray" <hmurray@suespammers.org> wrote in message
news:t7-dnUVydsUKXOncRVn-oQ@megapath.net...
> That seems reasonable, but it's awful short on specifics.
>
> How big does the plane have to be?  Are you assuming power/gnd pairs?
> If so, what spacing between the pairs?  Which plane/pair needs
> to be closest to the chip?
>
> Is there a procedure for computing the SSO rules given non-optimal
> power planes?
>
> Wise-ass mode would be:
>   What page of the data sheet describes the details?
>
>
> Let's go at it from the other direction.  What are the chances of
> making a solid PCI card on a 4 layer board?  Assume a TQFP-208
> package and assume that the PCI side is the major SSO problem
> and that the routing on the non-PCI signals is easy.
>
>
> I haven't done it, but I think you can get a reasonable layout
> in 4 layers with a TQFP package.  I'm assuming that the routing
> to the signal pins from the rest of the design is easy.
> (That's "reasonable" to my imagination/eyeball.  Reality might
> be totally different.)
>
> The idea is that the top/bottom layers under the chip are not
> needed for routing so you can fill them with copper to get
> a tiny plane.  It's probably not big enough to do much good,
> as a plane, but it will be a solid connection for all the
> appropriate power/gnd pins and bypass caps.
>
> It would be interesting to see how good that chunk of plane
> approach is compared to placing bypass caps right next to each
> pair of power/ground pins (with tight routing and fat traces).
>
>
> I've got a cheap modem PCI card handy.  Looks like it's only
> 2 layers.
>
Hal,
For this PCI card, I think the I/O will be your toughest problem. 32+ long
traces at 33MHz. So, I'd consider this. Assume four layers, 1, 2, 3 & 4.
FPGA mounted on layer 1. First, make layer 2 a ground plane. Underneath the
FPGA on layer 1, fill the area with copper and connect to all the Vcco pins.
Layer 3 under the FPGA should be copper flooded for Vccint. You now put a
chunky C shape around the Vccint flood on Layer 3 to route Vccaux.
Via Vccint, Vccaux and Ground to each and every required pin on the FPGA,
but keep the vias inside the square of FPGA pins, to avoid hindering routing
your I/O signals outwards on layer 1. Vcco vias can connect to anywhere on
your layer 1 mini-plane under the FPGA. If you have more than one Vcco, you
can divide up this mini plane, but try to group banks that share a Vcco
together.

On layer 4 under the FPGA, pack with bypass caps for Vcco and Vccint. (Check
XAPP623 for good advice on layout for bypass caps.) You need at least one
via for the power end of the cap, more is better, don't share vias between
caps. Flood the rest of this bit of layer 4 with ground for the bypass caps,
and use many vias to connect this layer 4 ground flood to Layer 2, your
ground plane.

Now, route your signals out on layer 1. Cram them together so that you can
fit extra bypass caps onto layer 1, for each of Vccint, Vcco, Vccaux.
As for bypass caps, use 0805s on layer 4. Use 0402s on layer 1. Via
inductance is around 1.2nH, double the capacitor inductance, so don't worry
about high frequencies on the bottom layer. In fact for a PQ208 the lead
inductance is probably around 10nH, so don't worry about all that 'spread of
capacitance values' crap, big capacitance is beautiful here!

Try it, you never know, you might be one of Austin's lucky ones! ;-)
Cheers, Syms.





Article: 74798
Subject: Re: spartan 3 on 4 layers
From: glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu>
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 10:52:14 -0700
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>


Hal Murray wrote:

>>Our SSO rules assume you have dedicated planes for Vccint, Vcco.  If you 
>>do not have both a power and a ground plane for each of these supplies, 
>>the SSO numbers must be reduced.  This also goes for simultaneously 
>>switching CLBs, and not just IOs.  We assume a power and ground plane 
>>(yes that would be four layers just for power) for low inductance on the 
>>Vccint/Vcco.

> That seems reasonable, but it's awful short on specifics.

> How big does the plane have to be?  Are you assuming power/gnd pairs?
> If so, what spacing between the pairs?  Which plane/pair needs
> to be closest to the chip?

Inductance should also go down with the thickness of the copper,
though at some point you run into the skin effect.
Thicker copper might be cheaper than more layers.

-- glen


Article: 74799
Subject: Re: Metastability pipeline causes bad juju
From: "Symon" <symon_brewer@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 10:57:23 -0700
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>

"Johan Bernspång" <xjohbex@xfoix.se> wrote in message
news:cl2g6r$fn7$1@mercur.foi.se...

> Well, it's a quite large design sampling the input at 200 MHz (from an
> ADC), CIC filters, LP FIRs, CORDIC, BP FIRs etc. I.e. lots of
> calculations for my poor ModelSim.

Of course, you simulated each of these blocks separately to verify they
worked? ;-)
Cheers, Syms.






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