Ensure the optimum use and operation of your new design tools by installing Foundation Series 1.5 on the recommended hardware with sufficient memory (RAM and hard disk “swap” space). If you experience problems with either the installation, operation, or verification of your installation, contact the Xilinx Technical Support hotline. Refer to the “Technical Support” section of this chapter for specifics.
The Foundation Series 1.5 software is a PC-only release. Foundation runs on either Windows 95 or Windows NT (version 4.0 Service Pack 3 or later). The following list shows the minimum recommended type of PC you should have to perform designs for Xilinx FPGAs or CPLDs.
Due to the size and complexity of the XC4000X and Virtex devices, Xilinx recommends that these designs be compiled using a high-performance computer. 64MB of RAM as well as 64MB of swap space is required to compile XC4000EX designs, but Xilinx recommends that at least 128MB of both RAM and swap space be used. For Virtex designs, Xilinx recommends 256 MB of RAM.
Swap file size requirements also vary with the design and constraint set size. By default, Windows 95 manages its swap file size automatically, but for Windows NT, you may need to increase it. Typically, your Windows NT swap file size should be twice as large as your system RAM amount.
It is important to note that slower systems or systems with less than the recommended RAM and/or swap space may exhibit longer runtimes.
The various steps of designing Xilinx FPGAs or CPLDs require a substantial amount of memory, as shown in the following table.
| Xilinx Packages | RAM | Virtual Memory (Swap Space) |
|---|---|---|
| Base or Base Express | 48 MB | 64 MB |
| Standard or Foundation Express | 64 MB | 128 MB |
The values given in the above table are for typical designs and include the normal load created by the operating system. Additional memory may be required for certain “boundary-case” or “extremely large” designs, as well as for concurrent operation of other non-Xilinx applications.
Please refer to the Foundation Series 1.5 Install and Release Document for complete details on installation and prerequisites for installation.
Run. Type d:setup.exe in the Open field of the Run window and click OK. (If your CD-ROM drive is not the “d” drive, substitute the appropriate drive designation.)You may need to reboot your PC to allow the new/modified environment variables and path statement to take effect before you can run the design implementation tools. The InstallShield program will inform you if you need to reboot.
There are optional CDs that you may have received in your package. Consult the Foundation Series 1.5 Install and Release Document for information about these CDs.
The Xilinx installation program supports only TCP-IP style networks. Novell is not a TCP-IP style network. You can run the Xilinx implementation tools from a network but not the Aldec design entry tools or Express. Also ABEL cannot be run from the network.
A license is only required for the Base Express and Foundation Express products.
If you are a new customer with no license.dat file installed and no LM_LICENSE_FILE variable set, a temporary license is automatically installed with Base Express and Foundation Express that permits you to run a fully functional evaluation copy of Base Express. When you install the Foundation 1.5 software, this evaluation license file (license.dat) is copied to %XILINX%\data on your system. In addition, the LM_LICENSE_FILE file variable is automatically set up to point to this license.dat file. When you receive a permanent license.dat file, Xilinx recommends that you put this license outside the Xilinx software tree. A common location is c:\flexlm.
To obtain a permanent license, you need to be a registered user in the Customer Service database.
New Xilinx users should fill out their Xilinx registration card and fax or mail it to their Customer Service location. Customer Service will send your license and authorization codes.
If you are an existing customer and you need a new license, you can obtain the new license by accessing the online Web tool at (http://www.xilinx.com/support/license.htm). If you request your license by fax, please fill out the form that is located behind the front cover of this Quick Start Guide.
Upon receiving a permanent license from Xilinx, make sure your LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable points to the new license file.
The following scenarios describe the requirements for licensing. For details about these scenarios and other licensing issues, see the “Setting Up Security” chapter in the Foundation Series 1.5 Install and Release Document.
If you are upgrading Base Express or Foundation Express to v1.5, you must manually update your existing license file. To update this file, perform the following steps:
INCREMENT FND-BSX-PC xilinxd 1.000 01-JAN-0 0 CCD4DEC6B7D7723BB082\ "XSJ_davet" 00a024a9ea43
INCREMENT FND-EXP-PC xilinxd 1.000 01-JAN-0 0 DC24BEE6B3D04455B07E \ "XSJ_davet" 00a024a9ea43
#
PACKAGE FND-BSX-PC xilinxd 1.000 20B020D1BB28AF442953 \
COMPONENTS="system-PC bit-PC \
xc3000D-PC xc4000E-PC xc5200E-PC \
ngd2vhdl-PC verilog-PC \
Foundation-PC X-VHDL-PC \
FPGA-Express-RL2100:1998.08 \
FPGA-Express-VHDL-Base:1998.08 \
FPGA-Express-VLOG-Base:1998.08 \
FPGA-Express-XC3k-Optimizer:1998.08 \
FPGA-Express-XC4k-Optimizer:1998.08 \
FPGA-Express-XC5k-Optimizer:1998.08 \
FPGA-Express-VIRTEX-Optimizer:1998.08 \
FPGA-Express-XC9k-Optimizer:1998.08 "
# #
PACKAGE FND-EXP-PC xilinxd 1.000 2080B0F13916AA26C238 \
COMPONENTS="system-PC bit-PC \
xc3000D-PC xc4000X-PC xc5200X-PC \
ngd2vhdl-PC verilog-PC \
Foundation-PC X-VHDL-PC \
FPGA-Express:1998.08 \
FPGA-Express-VHDL-Base:1998.08 \
FPGA-Express-VLOG-Base:1998.08 \
FPGA-Express-XC3k-Optimizer:1998.08 \
FPGA-Express-XC4k-Optimizer:1998.08 \
FPGA-Express-XC5k-Optimizer:1998.08 \
FPGA-Express-VIRTEX-Optimizer:1998.08 \
FPGA-Express-XC9k-Optimizer:1998.08 \
FPGA-Express-Constraint-Mgr:1998.08 "
#The preceding package definitions are available in electronic format in a file named "license_upgrade.txt". The license_upgrade.txt file is located both on the Foundation Series v1.5 CD and is copied to the Foundation Series v1.5 installation area.
