Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] USRP2 FPGA Notes

[David M. Witten II]

It is unfortunate (at least for me) that the use of the Spartan-2000 
precludes the use of the the web-pack tools from Xylinx.  I'm sure that 
the extra capacity will be welcome to those who can use it.  I had been 
planning to purchase  a USRP2 system when they became available.  But as 
an individual unaffiliated with a university or a profit making 
engineering firm, this appears to be unrealistic.

> - Just use the prebuilt FPGA images we provide
To what end?  Just to duplicate the efforts of others?

> - Purchase the full version of ISE from Xilinx
Way out of the question.  I spend entirely foolish amounts of money on 
such things already, but this would break the bank.  With no prospect of 
return, even I can't rationalize this.

> - Get a 60 day demo version from the Xilinx Web Site
60 days to conceive, implement, and debug - it can take 60 days to get 
tools of this scale installed correctly.

> - Convince your Xilinx apps engineer to get you a free copy
Fat chance!

> - Universities often get the tools free of charge
Not a viable option in my case.

> - Release your changes to the community and we can find some sort of way
> to build them for you (if anybody wants to work on putting together some
> scripts to do this automatically, let me know).
An appealing idea, and it fits the community model well, but even if it 
doesn't get the wind up the skirts of the legal types at Xylinx to have 
their tools used in this way, I find it difficult to imagine how this 
would not be cumbersome to the point of unusability.

Still hoping for an alternative...

Dave Witten


> Please note that the USRP2 uses a Spartan 3-2000 chip.  This means that 
> if you intend to do your own FPGA development, you need to use the full 
> version of the Xilinx tools in order to generate an image for it.  You 
> cannot use the free web pack version.  Thus there are several options 
> for you:
>
> - Just use the prebuilt FPGA images we provide
> - Purchase the full version of ISE from Xilinx
> - Get a 60 day demo version from the Xilinx Web Site
> - Convince your Xilinx apps engineer to get you a free copy
> - Universities often get the tools free of charge
> - Release your changes to the community and we can find some sort of way 
> to build them for you (if anybody wants to work on putting together some 
> scripts to do this automatically, let me know).
>
>
> Matt