I've been using GHDL as much as I can for simulation. It's effective, and pretty robust considering it's not that old. There's not much it can't do (it can run a DLX processor and the LEON1 SPARC processor). It's a native VHDL compiler (i.e. it does not translate to intermediate C/C++ or anything). It's written in ADA as a front end to GCC. The developer is easy to get a hold of and responsive to fixing bugs, and it's being actively developed. http://ghdl.free.fr

I've had no problems using the above simulator with any of the Xilinx
cores I use. Obviously, inferred parts are no problem. It's compiled
everything I need from unisim and XilinxCoreLib with no problems. Supports
VHDL 2002, etc.

I would highly recommend it as an alternative. I haven't gotten to
using it on a large design, so I can't say how fast or slow it is compared
to, say, ModelSim or what have you. But "free" goes a long, long, long way
to making up for that. Think how much computing resources you could buy for
the cost of single SE floating license...

- hoffer

Doh! I forgot that Xilinx gave out the source to the behavioral libraries for all the ASIC cells. Sorry about that. Mike On Sat, 26 Feb 2005 14:53:12 -0500, Michael Hordijk hoffbrinkle at hotmail.com> wrote:

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Mike Delaney wrote:




Please, could you refine on your statement? Any links to the Xilinx
stuff???

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On Tue, 01 Mar 2005 14:06:57 +0200, Nikolaos Kavvadias nkavv at physics.auth.gr> wrote:

Well, the only way I know of (for free) is to download Xilinx Webpack
and install it. Look in the $XILINX/vhdl/src directory. So you'll
still need a Windows box, but the source is also included with the
other (costly) versions of the Xilinx tools. I'm not sure if they do
have a seperate download for it or not.

And you'll find 16 Xilinx training sessions (free) here: http://www.demosondemand.com/dod/proddemos/vendors/pd_xilinx.aspx -----Original Message----- From: cores-bounces at opencores.org [mailto:cores-bounces at opencores.org] On Behalf Of Mike Delaney Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 7:00 AM To: Discussion list about free open source IP cores Subject: Re: [oc] Re: what opensource tools to use On Tue, 01 Mar 2005 14:06:57 +0200, Nikolaos Kavvadias nkavv at physics.auth.gr> wrote:

Well, the only way I know of (for free) is to download Xilinx Webpack and
install it. Look in the $XILINX/vhdl/src directory. So you'll still need a
Windows box, but the source is also included with the other (costly)
versions of the Xilinx tools. I'm not sure if they do have a seperate
download for it or not.



_______________________________________________ http://www.opencores.org/mailman/listinfo/cores

On Tuesday 01 March 2005 02:59 pm, Mike Delaney wrote:


Hehe, not exactly true.. Xilinx Webpack installs and runs just fine with
WINE.. So, you don't need a Windows box to use Webpack.. We've successfully
run it this way for a long time now here.. There are just two minor issues:

1) You'll just need to remember to set the $XILINX environment variable before
starting the webpack else it'll fail.. This is fixed easily using a simple
script..
2) You'll want to turn off the main STDERR window for the webpack as the
screen updates are quite slow.. You can still get all your error messages
from the log file..

cheers..

PS, I've just checked, the $XILINX/vhdl/src directory is in the webpack as
well..

--
with metta,
Shawn Tan.

On Tue, 1 Mar 2005 20:58:00 +0000, Shawn Tan Ser Ngiap shawn.tan at aeste.net> wrote:

[...]

Interesting.... Did you manage to run MXE Modelsim under Wine as well?
I remember the last time I tried (1.5 years ago) I couldn't make it
work,.. I had some problems with licensing if I remember correctly.

--
Sincerely,
Jung Ko

>>>>> "Mike" == Mike Delaney mmdst23 at gmail.com> writes: Mike> On Tue, 01 Mar 2005 14:06:57 +0200, Nikolaos Kavvadias Mike> nkavv at physics.auth.gr> wrote: >> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 >> >> Mike Delaney wrote: >> >> > Doh! I forgot that Xilinx gave out the source to the behavioral > >> libraries for all the ASIC cells. Sorry about that. >> >> Please, could you refine on your statement? Any links to the Xilinx >> stuff??? Mike> Well, the only way I know of (for free) is to download Xilinx Mike> Webpack and install it. Look in the $XILINX/vhdl/src directory. Mike> So you'll still need a Windows box, but the source is also Mike> included with the other (costly) versions of the Xilinx tools. Mike> I'm not sure if they do have a seperate download for it or not. You can use wine to install the files. Bye -- Uwe Bonnes bon at elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de Institut fuer Kernphysik Schlossgartenstrasse 9 64289 Darmstadt --------- Tel. 06151 162516 -------- Fax. 06151 164321 ----------

>>>>> "Shawn" == Shawn Tan Ser Ngiap shawn.tan at aeste.net> writes: Shawn> On Tuesday 01 March 2005 02:59 pm, Mike Delaney wrote: >> Well, the only way I know of (for free) is to download Xilinx Webpack >> and install it. Look in the $XILINX/vhdl/src directory. So you'll >> still need a Windows box, but the source is also included with the Shawn> Hehe, not exactly true.. Xilinx Webpack installs and runs just Shawn> fine with WINE.. So, you don't need a Windows box to use Shawn> Webpack.. We've successfully run it this way for a long time now Shawn> here.. There are just two minor issues: Recently there was a regression. Current CVS wine hits an error with ise. The commandline tool should work however Can you tell me your wine version? Perhaps I can isolate the error with a binary search. Perhaps others can report what wine versions work and what versions not. Shawn> 1) You'll just need to remember to set the $XILINX environment Shawn> variable before starting the webpack else it'll fail.. This is Shawn> fixed easily using a simple script.. If you run the GUI, ise.exe cares for setting the environment variable. Shawn> 2) You'll want to turn off Shawn> the main STDERR window for the webpack as the screen updates are Shawn> quite slow.. You can still get all your error messages from the Shawn> log file.. Recently a patch got checked into the Linux kernel that solved this problem. 2.6.11 should fix that. Bye -- Uwe Bonnes bon at elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de Institut fuer Kernphysik Schlossgartenstrasse 9 64289 Darmstadt --------- Tel. 06151 162516 -------- Fax. 06151 164321 ----------