Installing Xilinx ISE 13.4 on Win 7

Installation of Xilinx ISE 13.4 on Windows 7

The first step is to install the ISE. It is a long process that can take more than an hour, so be prepared and start early!

If you have a Mac, you could use Parallels with Windows 7 running as a virtual machine. The ISE works in this setup as well.

The steps described below describe the installation of the most recent version of the ISE in April 2012: ISE 13.4

• Go to Xilinx's Download site
• Download ISE 13.4 full installer for windows. the file is 6 GBytes in length, and will take a while to download. You may want to take a nap once the download has started...
• When asked for a userId and password, you can either create your own Id or use this one:
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• Click Next
• The file should start downloading. Once again, depending on the speed of your connection, this may take quite a long time.
• Unpack tar file into directory (in Dowloads folder). If Windows complain that it doesn't know how to unpack a file with a tar extension, download the 7-zip open-source utility, and use it to unpack the archive.
  • start/All Programs/ 7-zip File Manager
  • Locate the Xilinx tar file just downloaded
  • Extract in a folder of your choice.
• Once in the exploded directory, run the xsetup application
• Accept the license
• Agree to the terms
• Pick WebPack when asked for what to install
• Accept all defaults and install in C:\Xilinx\13.4 folder
• Install! (this will take a long while. But you'll need to click on a few more buttons after half and hour, so keep an eye on the installation window!)
• When prompted to intall several software packages from WinPcap, Xilinx, and Digilent, just accept (that will take a few seconds)
• Then you are almost 92% done... Keep waiting...
• When prompted for Acquiring a license, Pick Get Free ISE WebPack License.
• Sign in to Xilinx in the browser window that should have opened.
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• Download a license file and store it on your Desktop (or wherever it is convenient for you)
• Click on the Manage Licenses tab on the license window.
• Click on the Copy License button, and select the license file you just downloaded.
• That should be it. Close the license window.
• The installation should complete.
• Check that the ISE 13.4 is now available and running on your system. The Xilinx ISE Introductory Lab should be a good place to go to now...