xilinx vivado and zynq

[Jon Kirwan]

I frankly haven't been keeping up and wasn't aware of the
Zynq-7000 until receiving a notice about this:

http://www.cvent.com/events/x-tech-...summary-cd148dbc1dc84db0b03345f14fef5956.aspx

And this interesting article about Vivado by Clive Maxfield:

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-...the-next-decade-of--All-Programmable--devices

I'll be attending to get a clue. I've done VHDL and verilog
before, but this seems like a bit of a sea-change to me.

Jon

 

[Allan Herriman]

I frankly haven't been keeping up and wasn't aware of the Zynq-7000
until receiving a notice about this:

http://www.cvent.com/events/x-tech-presented-by-xilinx-and-avnet/event-

summary-cd148dbc1dc84db0b03345f14fef5956.aspx


I put one of those into a design for a client towards the end of last
year. Nice part for certain applications, but make sure you read the
long errata list very carefully - many of the features on the SoC don't
work, and have a status of "no plan to fix."

To be fair, most ARM SoCs from any manufacturer have nasty bugs that are
never fixed.

Errata:
http://www.xilinx.com/support/answers/47916.htm


Regards,
Allan

 

[Jon Kirwan]

summary-cd148dbc1dc84db0b03345f14fef5956.aspx

I put one of those into a design for a client towards the end of last
year. Nice part for certain applications, but make sure you read the
long errata list very carefully - many of the features on the SoC don't
work, and have a status of "no plan to fix."

To be fair, most ARM SoCs from any manufacturer have nasty bugs that are
never fixed.

Errata:
http://www.xilinx.com/support/answers/47916.htm

Thanks, Allan. Interesting. Would you mind saying what caused
you to choose that part? What excluded other options and made
this one in some fashion 'optimal?'

(I'm going to learn about vivado more than about the Zynq,
this time around. But I'm curious about the choice you made
and what led up to it and would gladly read anything you
choose to write about that.)

Jon

 

[Allan Herriman]

Thanks, Allan. Interesting. Would you mind saying what caused you to
choose that part? What excluded other options and made this one in some
fashion 'optimal?'

(I'm going to learn about vivado more than about the Zynq, this time
around. But I'm curious about the choice you made and what led up to it
and would gladly read anything you choose to write about that.)

The basic architecture for this client's application is similar to that
of a router: there is some sort of microprocessor running an operating
system and "control plane" (low bandwidth but nasty protocol data) and an
FPGA for the "data plane" (high bandwidth data with low latency).


Obvious choices were a Spartan 6 FPGA coupled with one of the many ARM
SoCs (from e.g. TI, Marvell, etc.).
All of these were cheaper than the Zynq.

The thing that swung us to using Zynq was the fact that the major device
on the board came from a single manufacturer, and that manufactuer has a
reputation for the longevity of supply of parts.

ARM SoCs are usually pretty bad choices if you want to make a product for
more than a couple of years.
Once that smartphone is replaced by a newer model, the SoC manufacturer
will soon stop making the device.

Regards,
Allan

 

[josephkk]

I frankly haven't been keeping up and wasn't aware of the
Zynq-7000 until receiving a notice about this:

http://www.cvent.com/events/x-tech-...summary-cd148dbc1dc84db0b03345f14fef5956.aspx

And this interesting article about Vivado by Clive Maxfield:

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-...the-next-decade-of--All-Programmable--devices

I'll be attending to get a clue. I've done VHDL and verilog
before, but this seems like a bit of a sea-change to me.

Jon

That is what they are advertising it as. Given the typical reported
quality of Xilinx tools i won't hold my breath.

?-)

 

[[email protected]]

I frankly haven't been keeping up and wasn't aware of the

Hey, thanks for pointing this out. I just acquired a Zedboard
a while ago to experiment with, but wasn't aware of the Vivado.
The webpack version covering the ZYNQ seems to be due soon.

Regards,
Mikko

 

[Jon Kirwan]

Hey, thanks for pointing this out. I just acquired a Zedboard
a while ago to experiment with, but wasn't aware of the Vivado.
The webpack version covering the ZYNQ seems to be due soon.

Regards,
Mikko

Yes, I think that's why they sent me notices and offered the
class here, locally. The webpack version is limited, but
free. But I think they've done some reasonably aggressive
pricing structure for the real deal, too. I saw figures in
the $2000 range, which is almost getting livable for a dba
like me.

I have an old set of Xilinx tools that they put out just
BEFORE they did their very first webpack, years ago. It ran
solo (no net connection) and was also free. But with the
webpack, they immediately stopped giving that thing away and
it became instant unobtainium. (so far as I remember.)

Jon