For support of an old product, we may need to modify a Xilinx Spartan 3 FPGA. This was originally designed in VHDL with Modelsim Designer and ISE 9.2, both no longer available. New Vivado versions do not seem to support Spartan 3. What are the current options for making changes to a Spartan 3 design? -- Stef Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.
Development tools for Xilinx Spartan 3
Started by ●March 3, 2022
Summary
This discussion explores development tool options for maintaining legacy Xilinx Spartan 3 FPGA designs, given that modern Vivado software does not support these older devices.
This discussion explores development tool options for maintaining legacy Xilinx Spartan 3 FPGA designs, given that modern Vivado software does not support these older devices. Participants recommend using archived versions of Xilinx ISE, specifically noting that version 14.7 remains a viable option for modern operating systems.
The consensus suggests that while registration and OS compatibility can be challenging, utilizing virtual machines or the specific Windows 10 version of ISE 14.7 allows for continued development and simulation using the integrated ISim tool.
- Xilinx provides an archive of older ISE versions, including 9.2 and 14.7, with available registration IDs.
- ISE 14.7 for Windows 10 is packaged as a virtual machine using a Linux subsystem to ensure compatibility.
- The built-in ISim simulator in ISE is a functional alternative if original ModelSim licenses are unavailable.
- Users recommend starting new project files from scratch when moving to different ISE versions to avoid issues with hidden cache files.
Xilinx ISESpartan 3Legacy SupportFPGA Simulation
Reply by ●March 3, 20222022-03-03
On 3/3/2022 9:45 AM, Stef wrote:> For support of an old product, we may need to modify a Xilinx Spartan 3 > FPGA. This was originally designed in VHDL with Modelsim Designer and > ISE 9.2, both no longer available. New Vivado versions do not seem to > support Spartan 3. > > What are the current options for making changes to a Spartan 3 design? >I believe you can download ISE 9.2 here: https://www.xilinx.com/downloadNav/vivado-design-tools/archive-ise.html but you may be able to use the latest version (14.7) which is also there. These are the free versions. Charlie
Reply by ●March 3, 20222022-03-03
On 2022-03-03 Charlie wrote in comp.arch.fpga:> On 3/3/2022 9:45 AM, Stef wrote: >> For support of an old product, we may need to modify a Xilinx Spartan 3 >> FPGA. This was originally designed in VHDL with Modelsim Designer and >> ISE 9.2, both no longer available. New Vivado versions do not seem to >> support Spartan 3. >> >> What are the current options for making changes to a Spartan 3 design? >> > > I believe you can download ISE 9.2 here: > > https://www.xilinx.com/downloadNav/vivado-design-tools/archive-ise.html > > but you may be able to use the latest version (14.7) which is also > there. These are the free versions.Thanks for that link! We do have a very old ISE 9.2 installation file, but I was affraid it would not run on newer OS'es and that the registration was no longer possible. The OS could be solved by using a VM, but not the registration. Your link shows you can still obtain a registration ID for 9.2. Aparantly there even is a 14.7 version for Windows 10 that supports older Spartan devices. So this may be an option as well. The original design made use of Modelsim Designer. I think mainly for the simulator? Do the ISE 9.2 and 14.7 installations include a decent simulator? -- Stef By doing just a little every day, you can gradually let the task completely overwhelm you.
Reply by ●March 3, 20222022-03-03
On 3/3/2022 6:41 PM, Stef wrote:> On 2022-03-03 Charlie wrote in comp.arch.fpga: >> On 3/3/2022 9:45 AM, Stef wrote: >>> For support of an old product, we may need to modify a Xilinx Spartan 3 >>> FPGA. This was originally designed in VHDL with Modelsim Designer and >>> ISE 9.2, both no longer available. New Vivado versions do not seem to >>> support Spartan 3. >>> >>> What are the current options for making changes to a Spartan 3 design? >>> >> >> I believe you can download ISE 9.2 here: >> >> https://www.xilinx.com/downloadNav/vivado-design-tools/archive-ise.html >> >> but you may be able to use the latest version (14.7) which is also >> there. These are the free versions. > > Thanks for that link! We do have a very old ISE 9.2 installation file, > but I was affraid it would not run on newer OS'es and that the > registration was no longer possible. The OS could be solved by using a > VM, but not the registration. Your link shows you can still obtain a > registration ID for 9.2. > > Aparantly there even is a 14.7 version for Windows 10 that supports > older Spartan devices. So this may be an option as well.The 14.7 version for Windows 10 uses the 'Windows subsystem for Linux' which I believe is a VM built into Windows. I've never used it. There is a minor patch that allows the 'regular' 14.7 version to run on Windows 10 without the need for the Linux subsystem. Here's a link to a video that shows how to do that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN1Qn60Whl8> > The original design made use of Modelsim Designer. I think mainly for > the simulator? Do the ISE 9.2 and 14.7 installations include a decent > simulator?I've only ever used the simulator (ISim) included with ISE so I'm not qualified to say if it is 'decent'. If you have Modelsim, I believe ISE can use it by setting the Project-Design properties in ISE Project Navigator but again I've never done that so I can't say how well it works. Charlie
Reply by ●March 4, 20222022-03-04
Am 04.03.22 um 00:41 schrieb Stef:> On 2022-03-03 Charlie wrote in comp.arch.fpga: >> On 3/3/2022 9:45 AM, Stef wrote: >>> For support of an old product, we may need to modify a Xilinx Spartan 3 >>> FPGA. This was originally designed in VHDL with Modelsim Designer and >>> ISE 9.2, both no longer available. New Vivado versions do not seem to >>> support Spartan 3. >>> >>> What are the current options for making changes to a Spartan 3 design? >>> >> >> I believe you can download ISE 9.2 here: >> >> https://www.xilinx.com/downloadNav/vivado-design-tools/archive-ise.html >> >> but you may be able to use the latest version (14.7) which is also >> there. These are the free versions.The WIN10 version for 14.7 is just a virtual machine. Since I run Linux and Windows only in a virtual machine, I simply continue to use my WIN7 virtual machine with VMware. VMware is transparent enough to handle the Xilinx download cable via USB. A virtual machine in a virtual machine is probably asking for too much.> Thanks for that link! We do have a very old ISE 9.2 installation file, > but I was affraid it would not run on newer OS'es and that the > registration was no longer possible. The OS could be solved by using a > VM, but not the registration. Your link shows you can still obtain a > registration ID for 9.2. > > Aparantly there even is a 14.7 version for Windows 10 that supports > older Spartan devices. So this may be an option as well. > > The original design made use of Modelsim Designer. I think mainly for > the simulator? Do the ISE 9.2 and 14.7 installations include a decent > simulator?I vaguely recall that 9.2 was somewhat nasty. I evaded to 10.something, the latest version that still supported the original Virtexes. One point was that ISE had some invisible caches. You could get error messages involving variables that were no longer part of the project since a week. That could be invoked by copying the entire project to somewhere else. It was much safer to just copy the sources and setup the project completely anew. I only used Modelsim, Questa sometimes. And Silos before that. :-) Gerhard
