Xilinx ISE Lab No. 1: Schematics Input

--D. Thiebaut 16:53, 14 April 2012 (EDT)

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This lab is an introduction to Xilinx ISE and to the CoolRunner-II kit. Unfortunately the CoolRunner-II and its programming utility from Digilent works only with Windows XP, so we won't be able to download the design into the CPLD chip, but we can still energize and test the design with the ISE Simulator.

Introduction

Xilinx's ISE is "Xilinx ISE[1] is a software tool produced by Xilinx for synthesis and analysis of HDL designs, which enables the developer to synthesize ("compile") their designs, perform timing analysis, examine RTL diagrams, simulate a design's reaction to different stimuli, and configure the target device with the programmer."

The goal of this lab/tutorial is to get the reader familiar with the process of designing a simple digital electronic circuit, compiling it, and verifying it correct behavior with a simulator.

Knowledge of digital logic (basic gates, flip-flops, Moore machines) is assumed.

This lab is based on the excellent series of labs created for the CoolRunner CPLD by Tiffany Liu in her Independent Study in the CS. Dept. at Smith College.

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
• When asked for a userId and password, you can either create your own Id or use this one:
  • 
    This section is only visible to computers located at Smith College
    
    
• Click Next
• The file should start downloading. It takes about 30 minutes on a wireless connection.
• 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.
• Once in the exploded directory, run the xsetup application
• Pick WebPack when asked for what to install
• Accept all defaults and install in C:\Xilinx folder

Lab 1: Creating a 2-bit Adder with Schematics

• Open the ISE
• File/New Project
• Pick a name: TwoBitAdder
• Accept the default location
• Top-Level source: Schematics

• Next