X-Authentication-Warning: delorie.com: mail set sender to geda-user-bounces using -f X-Recipient: geda-user AT delorie DOT com X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com From: Kai-Martin Knaak Subject: Re: [geda-user] FPGA / CPLD development with Linux Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2012 23:57:15 +0200 Organization: Institut =?UTF-8?B?ZsO8cg==?= Quantenoptik Lines: 62 Message-ID: References: <1350863030 DOT 93187 DOT YahooMailNeo AT web121004 DOT mail DOT ne1 DOT yahoo DOT com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" X-Complaints-To: usenet AT ger DOT gmane DOT org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: bibo.iqo.uni-hannover.de User-Agent: KNode/4.4.11 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by delorie.com id q9MLvase022312 Reply-To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com David Collins wrote: > The most obvious issues seem to be: > 1. Will I be able to synthesize circuits for these devices using Icarus > Verilog? I don't know. Since we are locatd in europe, we go the VHDL way ;-) > and 2. Are there open-source tools for working with the Altera > JTAG USB-blaster? Last time I checked, the answer to almost anything practical regarding open sourced software connected to FPGAs was a resounding "No, none, nay". We do our FPGA project on linux. But we use Alteras Quartus2 suite, which is as closed source as it gets. This is by far the most elephant like software I have ever used. It took me an afternoon just to achieve a "hello world" when I startesd completely uninitiated. But in the end, it does its job... > Also, is there a particular FPGA or development kit you would recommend? For first prototyping and learning purposes, we use the smaller of the Altera cyclone2 development kits: DK-CYCII-2C20N It sets you back by about 200 ?. But there is a host of on board I/O-options Some RAM, a dedicated processor to automatically write to the FPGA on load and even a segmented LED display. > Would I be better off with a Xilinx device? I'd say: Go with whatever your first level of support prefers for their own work. In our case, we can connect to an University institute for programmable devices. They mainly develop with Altera hardware. And they program in VHDL. > If anyone has experience developing for CPLDs with Linux, I am > interested in advice on that also. One nice aspect with Quartus is, it can synthesize for any device in the Altera hardware lineup. Programms can be tested and debugged on the cyclone2 of the devel board even if the intended target is one of the CPLDs. ---<)kaimartin(>---