Xilinx Software

Xilinx Vivado

" The Vivado® Design Suite offers a new approach for ultra high productivity with next generation C/C++ and IP-based design with the new HLx editions including HL System Edition, HL Design Edition and HL WebPACK™ Edition." -- Xilinx Vivado

The current supported version is  2018.3.1.

Labs

Xilinx Vivado 2018.3.1 is available in MacLean M210, in Cummings 221, Cumming 011, and  the Virtual Computer Lab. It is also available on the PC Loaner Laptops.

Installation on PC

  1. Connect to Thayerfs
  2. Goto ThayerFS->Courses->Software->Xilinx
  3. Copy the "Vivado_SDK_2018.3" folder to your computer, and run the installer ("xetup.exe")
    1. Agree to all License agreements
    2. Select "Vivado HL System Edition"
    3. Deselect any Devices you don't need (Deselecting UltraScale devices reduces the install by about 35%)
    4. In the Vivado License Manager 2018.3 set "Manage License Search Paths" set XILINXD_LICENSE_FILE to 2100@xilinx-license.thayer.dartmouth.edu

Xilinx ISE

Xilinx ISE WebPACK is a "FREE, easy-to-use software solution for your Xilinx CPLD or medium-density FPGA design on Windows and Linux."

The terminal version is 14.7 no further updates are planned.

Labs

"Xilinx ISE DS 14.7b" is available for install via the  Software Center in MacLean M210, Cummings 221, Cummings 222 or Cumming 011.

Installation

System Requirements:

  • Microsoft® Windows XP Professional, or newer
  • .2 to 3 GB RAM Depending on FPGA used
  • 18 GB of available disk space with an additional 6 GB during installation

Installation for research

  1. Download ISE Design Suite - 14.7
    1. Either "Full Installer for Windows" or
    2. "Full Installer for Linux "

Installation on PC

This should take about an hour once you have downloaded the installer from the Thayer file-server (thayerfs).

  1. Make sure you are running Windows 7, have at least 22 Gbyte of free hard disk space (19.5 GB for the installation, 6.5 GB for the installer ... can be on an external drive), and at least 1 Gbyte of main memory.  You can perform this installation while on the wireless network.
  2. Go to the Courses folder of the Thayer file-server (see https://wiki.thayer.dartmouth.edu/display/computing/ThayerFS+Shares for instructions on how to do this).  Copy the file Courses/software/Xilinx/Version_14_7/Xilinx_ISE_DS_Win_14.7_1015_1.tar to your computer's hard drive.  This will take a while, because it's a 6.5 gigabyte file.  Once it's copied, double-click the file, which should launch your file compression program (e.g., WinZip) to expand the archive into a folder.  After expanding the file you can delete the Xilinx_ISE_DS_Win_14.7_1015_1.tar file
  3. Configure Windows to access the license server.  Go to Control Panel->System->Advanced system settings, Click on "Environment Variables".  Set up a system-wide system variable name XILINXD_LICENSE_FILE with a value of 2100@xilinx-license.thayer.dartmouth.edu
  4. Now open the folder Xilinx_ISE_DS_Win_14.7_1015_1.tar launch the installer, xsetup.exe .
  5. Click through the Welcome and Accept License Agreements screens.
  6. At the Select Products to Install screen, click the Logic Edition (or System Edition or ...) radio button, and then click Next to go to the next screen.
  7. At the Select Installation Options screen, Uncheck the box for WinPCap and click Next to go to the next screen.
  8. At the Select Destination Directory screen, accept the defaults and click Next to go to the next screen.
  9. At the Installation screen, click Install, and wait a while.

Problems

Vivado SDK linux to windows transfer

The underlying problem appears to be that the Vivado project was created on linux and the include file paths still point to /thayerfs/apps/.... when the project is opened on windows. 

To get the correct include paths in the project, do the following

  1. Open the project on a Windows computer in the Digital Lab (Note. Apparently a project archived on Linux cannot be opened on Windows but the reverse works).
  2. Open SDK
  3. Go to "File, Properties"
  4. Choose "Paths" (that's not exact) in the left hand column
  5. Add the 4 paths to the includes on Windows

The root of all 4 paths is:
C:\Xilinx\SDK\2018.3\gnu\aarch32\nt\gcc-none-arm-none-eabi\

Then add the following to the above paths for the full path

  • arm-none-eabi/include
  • arm-none-eabi/libc/usr/include
  • lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/7.3.1/include
  • lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/7.3.1/include-fixed