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Messages from 2125

Article: 2125
Subject: Re: Xilinx Configuration Memory Hacking
From: gt7522b@acmex.gatech.edu ()
Date: 18 Oct 1995 15:22:08 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
news@tumlis.lis.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de wrote:
: Hi all,

: is there anyone, who has tried to hack the internal configuration memory
: structure of Xilinx FPGA's?

You may have already looked at this, but check out page 2-26 of the 1994 
Xilinx data book(I have 2nd edition).  There is some info on the configuration
data stream and how it is organized.  Anything more detailed is beyond me.


--
     Chad Lord
     gt7522b@prism.gatech.edu 


Article: 2126
Subject: Re: Library of Parametrized Modules info
From: wannema@bonsai (Markus Wannemacher)
Date: 18 Oct 1995 16:00:52 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Dimitris Phoukas (dimitris@engn.uwindsor.ca) wrote:
: Can someone give me a pointer to a location describing the Library of
: Parametrized Modules format
: and design style? I am familiar with Xilinx XBLOX only.

LPM was developed by a consortium including Actel, Altera, Exemplar Logic,
Mentor Graphics, Minc, NeoCAD, Synopsys,ViewLogic and Xilinx.

But also Atmel uses macro generators for their FPGAs that are (somehow)
compatibel to LPM.

LPM is now a technical subcommittee of EDIF (Electronic Design Interchange
Format). EDIF is a division of the Electronic Industries Association (EIA).

You can find more informations, the adress of EDI and the phone number
of the LPM contact person at this document:

  file://edif.cs.man.ac.uk/pub/edif/inf_and_docs/LPMPressRelease


I hope this will help you.

Markus Wannemacher


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  @@        @@                                Markus Wannemacher
 @@@        @@@     @@@@@@        @    @      FernUniversit"at Hagen
@@@@        @@@@    @       @@@   @    @      LG Informationstechnik
@@@@  @@@@  @@@@    @@@@   @   @  @    @      LGZ, Profilstr. 10b
 @@@  @@@@  @@@     @      @@@@@  @    @      D-58084 Hagen, Germany
  @@@@@@@@@@@@      @      @      @    @      phone  +49 2331 987 4547
   @@@@@@@@@@       @       @@@    @@@@       fax:   +49 2331 987 375

Internet:  E-Mail:       Markus.Wannemacher@FernUni-Hagen.De
           WWW:          html://www.fernuni-hagen.de/www2bonsai/IT/team/wm.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Article: 2127
Subject: Re: Ceramic Resonators with xc3000 int. Oscillator (solution)
From: "Ingo Cyliax" <cyliax@cs.indiana.edu>
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 11:23:03 -0500
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Well, I did some experimenting and found that I could get it to oscillate
with the following values (pg. 2-118 of "The Programmable Logic Data Book",
1994):

	R1 - 1M
	R2 - 2K
	C1,C2 - 220pF

See ya, -ingo

In article <1995Oct18.000308.21958@news.cs.indiana.edu>,
Ingo Cyliax <cyliax@cs.indiana.edu> wrote:
>
>Hi
>
>I'm trying to get a 480Khz ceramic resonator to work with the
>internal oscillator module of an xc3030APC44. I have gotten
>crystals to work (i.e. I know about the -S1 flag to makebits).
>Is 480Khz too low ? The module is spec'ed for 1-20Mhz. What
>values of R1 (1Mohm), R2 (0), C1/C2 (220pF) should I be using ?
>
>Any ideas ?
>
>Thanks, -ingo
>-- 
>/* Ingo Cyliax, cyliax@cs.indiana.edu, +1 812 333 4854, +1 812 855 6984 (day) */


-- 
/* Ingo Cyliax, cyliax@cs.indiana.edu, +1 812 333 4854, +1 812 855 6984 (day) */


Article: 2128
Subject: Re: Programming AMD Mach Parts
From: mercure@primenet.com (Ray Saarela)
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 95 16:46:06 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
In article <461ajs$3sf@mordred.gatech.edu>,
   bartram@esmsun.gtri.gatech.edu (Dan Bartram) wrote:
>In article <460a2b$vrg@melimelo.enst-bretagne.fr>,
>   Guy LEONHARD <leonhard> wrote:
>>I need to programm "one" AMD MACH-435 and I would like to know if somebody 
>have
>>perform this task with a self build programmer. If so or if you know the
>>algorithm which must be applied, please e-mail me.
>
>AMDs MachXL Software and Downloading cable are free, just call them
>and ask for it - Toll Free number in France is 0590-8621 (listed on back of
>AMDs MachXL data book.
>
>
>****************************************************************************
>Dan Bartram, Jr.                                    Work: (404) 894-7107
>Research Engineer                                    FAX: (404) 894-7080
>

To my knowledge, MACH435 is one that doesn't have a JTAG-port to program it,
so one DOES NEED a programmer in addition to MachXL.

What I would do, is drop MACH435, and use MACH445 instead with the free cable 
and MACHXL, or if one makes a programmer, it would be nice to be able to
program also Altera and Xilinx small EPLD's, which have same capacity easily 
as MACH's and LEX780's at a lot smaller price, unfortunately still requiring 
a 300 buck programmer, but in bigger amounts using EPLD's will be cheaper.

I am going to compliment my AMD MACH's with a programmer hat does it, and of 
course it wold be nice to be able to find the programming data so that one 
could do it onefels, as making these programmers isn't normally very 
complicated for anyone almost ...

I'd be interested to participate in a joint-effort to make a programmer for
Xilinx and Altera small EPLD-parts starting from 7032 etc sizes ... 

			 	Ray S. 

 


Article: 2129
Subject: Re: REPOST: Design Contest Write-up ( was "Jury Verdict + Test Benches" )
From: Gord Wait S-MOS Systems Vancouver Design Center <gord@smos.com>
Date: 18 Oct 1995 17:47:15 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
May I offer the suggestion as to the apparent difference in performance between
state of the art processors, and your average asic (in terms of clock speed) is
most likely to do with the amount of effort put into a processor design?
IE if you spend anywhere near the amount of time/effort/money to produce your
next asic as Intel did for the pentium, I beleive you would see a very fast
asic. 
The old argument from software still applies: sure you "could" code a better
design in raw gates, (or in the case of processors in terms of raw
transistors?)
but it will take you a lot more time/manpower to do it, compared to coding
in RTL and synthesizing it. 
To be typically Canadian, I'll argue for the other side as well:
Eventually, processors are supposed to run into a brick wall of physics,
or cost of development, so at that point, the fatware programs will have to
start slimming down to maintain market growth. IE High level (software)
languages benefit by the insane speed increases in processors to date.

-- 
Gord Wait 	S-MOS Systems Vancouver Design Centre
                (B.C. Canada eh!)
gord@vdc.smos.com

---------------
This sig is under constru



Article: 2130
Subject: Re: Xilinx Configuration Memory Hacking
From: milne@cv.com (Ewan D. Milne)
Date: 18 Oct 1995 18:18:20 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
news@tumlis.lis.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de wrote:
: Hi all,
:
: is there anyone, who has tried to hack the internal configuration memory
: structure of Xilinx FPGA's?

Yes.  The real challenge is to do it without using any of the Xilinx
software.  I built a test fixture with an XC3030 and downloaded it with
various bit patterns to isolate which bits affect the behavior of the
device.  It is interesting from the standpoint of understanding how
the device works, but I don't see how you could use this approach for
a real design.  Figuring out the connectivity will only get you so far.
You still need to be able to estimate routing delays.  In addition,
I believe the Xilinx software avoids leaving internal nodes floating
to reduce power consumption.

Speaking of power consumption, if you download an invalid bitstream
into a XC3000 series device it is possible to blow up the chip due
to heat generated from excessive power consumption.  Be careful.

Ewan

----------------------------------------------------------------
Ewan D. Milne / Computervision Corporation  (milne@petra.cv.com)
"Talk is cheap." -- Adler On-Line (a TV call-in talk show program)


Article: 2131
Subject: Chip Express Expreiences Wanted
From: tboydsto@su102s.ess.harris.com (Ted Boydston)
Date: 18 Oct 1995 18:33:22 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
I am getting ready to produce a quick turn ASIC by translating an fpga XNF
netlist to ASIC.  One of the vendors we are considering to perform this task is
Chip Express; therefore, I was wondering if anyone has had any experiences they
could relay to me about Chip Express's translation process.

Specifically:

* How much time was spent translating your design?
* How many problems did you run into?
* Did you participate in the translation process or did Chip Express do all the work?
* What did they require of from you to perform the translation?

Since I have personally gone through a translation process, I know that it is riddled
with many pitfalls.  This fact makes me wonder if Chip Express's (as well as other
quickturn vendors--like Orbit) brochures oversimplify the issue.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks :)
 
  +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 /                            TED L. BOYDSTON IV                             \
+ Harris Corporation, GASD * PO Box 94000 * MS 102-4823 * Melbourne, FL 32902 +
 \ Email: tboydsto@harris.com * Fax: (407) 729-2782 * Voice: (407) 729-7999  /
  +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+



Article: 2132
Subject: Re: LPM Information
From: jpseidel@george.dazixco.ingr.com (Jorge Seidel)
Date: 18 Oct 1995 19:07:06 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
In your recent posting you asked about LPM:

 > From: dimitris@engn.uwindsor.ca (Dimitris Phoukas)
 > [1] Library of Parametrized Modules info
 > X-Nntp-Posting-Host: thor.engn.uwindsor.ca
 > Organization: University of Windsor, EE
 > Date: Tue Oct 17 11:56:26 MDT 1995
 >
 > Can someone give me a pointer to a location describing the Library of
 > Parametrized Modules format

"LPM was accepted as an EIA Interim standard in April 1993 as an
adjunct standard to EDIF 2 0 0 (EIA-548-A) and was given Interim
Standard number IS-103.  LPM is document EIA/IS-103 of May 1993 and is
available from:

    Electronic Industries Association 
    Engineering Department
    2001 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
    Washington, D.C.  20006

 > and design style?  I am familiar with Xilinx XBLOX only.

I was one of the people who wrote the original X-BLOX(tm), and I've
been working with LPM since it's inception.  The basic idea behind the
two is similar with the major difference being the DataType
Propagation in X-BLOX.  Both are highly parameterized and both require
a mapping engine.  In the case of X-BLOX, Xilinx provides the mapping
to XC4000 and XC3100 parts.  In the case of LPM, the mapping is
provided by the silicon vendor (Altera, QuickLogic) or a third party
(NeoCAD - before they were acquired by Xilinx).  

 > Also, is  it possible to instantiate/generate new LPMs from within VHDL?

LPM is an EDIF standard, so technically, the only valid format for LPM
is EDIF.  At the latest LPM meeting (Oct 5, 1995) a working group was
formed to look at VHDL and Verilog issues.  I'm a member of that
working group if you have specific items you'd like to have addressed.

 > Which vendors support LPMs in their P&R tools?

Altera has supported LPM for some time now.  QuickLogic recently
announced support.  There are others who will be supporting LPM in the
near future, but it's not my place to make their announcements for
them  8-)  

BRIEF AD: Intergraph provides a complete LPM solution including
schematic entry, Verilog and VHDL simulation, and synthesis of LPM to
standard ASICs as part of their VeriBest tools.

 > Thanks in advance, 
 >  
 > Dimitris Phoukas
 > VLSI Research Group, University of Windsor
 
The latest version of LPM is LPM 2.1.0 which was approved at the LPM
Technical Committee meeting on October 5, 1995.  I have several
example schematics (including the infamous "cooley contest") in LPM.
The examples are available as postscript schematics, LPM 2.0.1
compilant EDIF, and Verilog.  Intergraph may also provide an updated
chapter 4 of the LPM manual by ftp if an agreement can be worked out
with EIA.

I hope this helps.  If you have any other questions, feel free to
e-mail or call me.
-- 
****************************************
Jorge Seidel **** INTERGRAPH ELECTRONICS
jpseidel@edaco.ingr.com **** Boulder, CO
** Senior Technical Marketing Consultant
** (303) 581-2363  **** FAX: 581-9972 **
****************************************


Article: 2133
Subject: Re: "XACT 5.1 is incompatible with everything!!!!!!!!" -- a mild exaggeration, plus some Win95 hints
From: <cha>
Date: 18 Oct 1995 19:31:23 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

---------------------------------293331408513238
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Can you explain why it's necessary to do that in the QEMM definition line?.
I've read the QEMM help files and they say tha Extender programs needn't
special atention. Why does the extender that XACT+Viewlogic uses need this
atention?

                         Thanks for your help.

                                Cha.

---------------------------------293331408513238
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Type: text/plain

Article: 2134
Subject: one-hot encoding for fsm's
From: michaelk@macs.ee.mcgill.ca (Michael Kim)
Date: 18 Oct 1995 21:12:01 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
A few weeks ago there was a discussion on how using one-hot
encoding could speed up fsm's.  I followed these discussions
closely and I downloaded Xilinx's manuals for info on how to
write the VHDL code.  For a 14 state fsm I added the
following code in order to use one-hot encoding:

TYPE STATE_TYPE IS (S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, S8, S9, S10, S11,
                    S12, S13, S14);
ATTRIBUTE ENUM_ENCODING : STRING;

ATTRIBUTE ENUM_ENCODING OF STATE_TYPE : TYPE IS "00000000000001 00000000000010 0
0000000000100 00000000001000 00000000010000 00000000100000 00000001000000 000000
10000000 00000100000000 00001000000000 00010000000000 00100000000000 01000000000
000 10000000000000 ";

I took it on faith that using one-hot encoding would speed up my fsm's.
However, just for fun I tried to use the minimum number of bits to
encode my fsm.  For instance, in the above example I wrote:

TYPE STATE_TYPE IS (S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, S8, S9, S10, S11,
                    S12, S13, S14);
ATTRIBUTE ENUM_ENCODING : STRING;

ATTRIBUTE ENUM_ENCODING OF STATE_TYPE : TYPE IS "0000 0001 0010 0011 0100 0101 0110 0111 1000 1001 1010 1011 1100 1101 ";

I compiled several fsm's that I had designed using Synopsys 3.0b and
XACT 5.1 and I compared the estimated clocking speed using xdelay
for fsm's that use one-hot encoding and just regular encoding (fewest
number of bits).  Here are my results:

FSM with 16 states, 32 transitions, 3 inputs, and 19 outputs:
	     one-hot     regular encoding
4010PG191-6  11.0 MHz        13.8 MHz
4010PG191-4  15.0 MHz	     18.9 MHz

FSM with 22 states, 51 transitions, 13 inputs, and 37 outputs:
	     one-hot     regular encoding
4010PG191-6   7.7 MHz	     10.8 MHz
4010PG191-4  10.5 MHz        14.8 MHz

FSM with 14 states, 30 transitions, 16 inputs, and 16 outputs:
	     one-hot     regular encoding
4010PG191-6  10.6 MHz        13.6 MHz
4010PG191-4  14.5 MHz        18.6 MHz

I also tried compiling one of the fsm's using Synopsys 3.3b:

FSM with 14 states, 30 transitions, 16 inputs, and 16 outputs:
	     one-hot     regular encoding
4010PG191-6  10.0 MHz        10.0 MHz
4010PG191-4  13.3 MHz        13.9 MHz


All of the above results are puzzling.  When I use Synopsys 3.0b,
I get the exact opposite results when I use one-hot encoding -
it slows the fsm down!  The findings are not as marked when I
use Synopsys 3.3b but for the -4 speed grade I still find the
same result.  Am I doing something wrong?  Has anyone else
noticed this?

Mike

--


      _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
     _/   Michael C. Kim, Master's Candidate             _/
    _/   Microelectronics and Computer Systems Lab      _/
   _/   McGill University, Montreal, Canada            _/
  _/   Email: michaelk@macs.ee.mcgill.ca              _/
 _/   Phone: (514) 398-3937  Fax: (514) 398-4470     _/
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/



Article: 2135
Subject: Evaluating Design Tools
From: synth@prep.org
Date: 19 Oct 1995 00:43:10 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
EVALUATING DESIGN TOOLS
 
TO: all the lurkers out there on comp.arch.fpga
 
How good are your design tools?
Are they well suited for your work?
Are they worth what you pay for them?
 
PREP Corp. (the programmable logic benchmarking outfit) has been working 
to provide standard means for you and your vendors to evaluate design 
tools -- like how efficient are they in producing good performance or 
small size in your designs.
 
But we now need your evaluations of what we have been doing.
 
The PREP Working Group 4 has determined (largely at the suggestion of the 
EDA tool vendors) that the best means of evaluating tools is by using 
"Test Benches." of "Real Designs"
 
Test Benches are much different than Benchmarks, which PREP is already 
famous (infamous?) for.  So don't let your mind jump down that branch.  
We're talking about something a lot different here.
 
The objective is to provide Standard PREP Test Benches to the industry.  
We think that designers can use them to compare design methodologies and 
design tools as well as devices (even devices that aren't programmable).
 
PREP Test Benches are circuit functions described in an HDL but specified 
to meet certain rigorous test requirements.  The Test Bench describes the 
stimulus/response of an accompanying HDL design. We are looking for "Real 
Designs" from users.
 
The purpose is to save time for both designers and vendors.  Having 
Standard Test Benches will allow designers to compare the results of 
designs by different tools and know the comparison is orange-to-orange.  
Vendors can have designs done and ready for designers to look  at.
 
However, to achieve these noble objectives the standard functions must be 
similar to the functions designers are working with.  They must be common 
and important.  And all of the. little details of specifying and 
employing a standard must be done in the most user friendly way, or it 
won't be used.  These needs mean we need your inputs, donations of 
functions and evaluations of candidate circuit functions -- from you, the 
designer.
 
To get your inputs PREP has worked for months to get our homepage up and 
working on the Web.  We now have the means to communicate easily, 
inexpensively and quickly with the EDA user community.
 
You will find information about this work at "www.prep.org."  Look in the 
"Synthesis Corner." There you will find a history of the Test Benches 
developments, a specification on reporting results, Test Benches for the 
nine (9) PREP Benchmarks and a RISC processor, and  more.  
PREP is also establishing a discussion group (list server system) for 
those that   want to comment, analyze the proposals or simply read all 
the comments. You are invited to jump into www.prep.org and check out 
this important project.  Join it or just criticize it, but please give us 
your opinions.
 
John Birkner

Chairman, PREP Working Group 4

synth@prep.org





Article: 2136
Subject: Re: "XACT 5.1 is incompatible with everything!!!!!!!!" -- a mild exaggeration, plus some Win95 hints
From: jsgray@ix.netcom.com (Jan Gray)
Date: 19 Oct 1995 04:28:23 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
(Apologies that this is not particularly FPGA related.)

In <463kmb$n26@diable.upc.es> <cha> writes: 
>I've read the QEMM help files and they say tha Extender programs
needn't
>special atention. Why does the extender that XACT+Viewlogic uses need
this
>atention?

DEVICE=C:\QEMM\QEMM386.SYS x=a000-dfff frame=e000

In the first 1 MB of address space on a typical PC,  RAM occupies
addresses 00000 through 9FFFF.  Adresses A0000 through FFFFF are used
for ROM BIOS and for memory mapped I/O, such as the frame buffer memory
of a video card.  QEMM and other memory manager detect unused I/O
address space and map RAM into it, in order to load TSRs, drivers, and
the EMS frame, above the usual RAM address space.

I assume QEMM 6.x, a fairly old memory manager, does not correctly
detect some new, modern devices between addresses A0000 and DFFFF. 
Therefore I direct QEMM to assume there is no available address space
there using the x=... directive.  The frame= directive explicitly
places my EMS frame at E0000.

If I load QEMM without these directives, it maps EMS onto some address
range  which conflicts with one of my cards (my SCSI controller, I
think).  Then when I run Workview, its DOS extender allocates EMS
memory and writes to it.  This unfortunately overwrites the registers
or buffers of one of my cards and crashes my PC.  You may be
experiencing the same problem.

Jan.



Article: 2137
Subject: #### PANIC! Need Help On USE/DA Mentor Survey !! ####
From: jcooley@world.std.com (John Cooley)
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 07:48:43 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
      !!!     "It's not a BUG,                         jcooley@world.std.com
     /o o\  /  it's a FEATURE!"                               (508) 429-4357
    (  >  )
     \ - /    "PANIC!  Need Help On USE/DA Report Card on Mentor Graphics"
     _] [_ 

     Holliston Poor Farm, P.O. Box 6222, Holliston, MA  01746-6222


HELP!  As the president of the Users Society for Electronic Design Automation 
(USE/DA) I also foolishly signed up to do a detailed report card on Mentor
Graphics next week. (I'm the same guy who did the survey on Cadence for their
user's group meeting.  I got some interesting results but don't want to
release it until this Mentor survey is done so they don't influence each 
other.)  What I need from you, as a Mentor user, is to tell me exactly how 
you feel about various aspects of doing business with Mentor.  ALL CUSTOMER 
INPUT WILL BE USED ANONYMOUSLY.  (That is, I'll report *what* customers 
think but not exactly *who* said it.)

My goal is to provide a balanced report card that contains not only where 
Mentor has messed up, but also where they're doing a good job.  I'm an ASIC 
designer so I'd like to ask that you be as specific as possible in what you 
say.  If you love/hate specific things Mentor does/offers, I want to hear 
the specifics.  Feel free to respond on anything, but to get you in an 
evaluation frame of mind, I'll ask:

Please Report Your Primary Interest In Mentor Tools (ASIC design, PCB 
design, Analog IC design, RTL simulation, Full Custom Design, etc):_________

  1.)  What tools do you specifically use (by name)?:

  2.)  What does your company make/sell?

  3.)  Where are you? (City, State, Country)?


 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  1.) What do you think of Mentor's on-line & hard copy documentation?  Is it 
      usually very helpful & complete, out-to-lunch, or what? 

  2.) What do you think of Mentor's hotline?  What's the typical turnaround 
      you get for your questions?  Do you feel that you get access to 
      knowlegable experts or new college graduates most of the time?  What do 
      you think of their "We'll call you back" way of running the hotline?  
      How many times have you had to use it in a typical month?

  3.) What do you think of Mentor's local support in your area?  Are they 
      around after your company bought the tool?  Are they helpful?

  4.) What do you think of Mentor's electronic connectivity?  How about their
      WWW page?  "comp.sys.mentor" ?

  5.) What do you think about Mentor Professional Services?  Has your company 
      lost employees to this?  Have they solved your problems?  Do you like
      Mentor offering such services that might mean doing design for your 
      company?

  6.) What do you think about Mentor training?  Have you used there classes?
      Were they very helpful, a complete waste of time or somewhere in 
      between?  Please be specific.

  7.) How do you feel about the Mentor sales force?  Do they talk to you or 
      are they only interested in your VP of Engineering?  Do they help you 
      through business problems year round or only when there a potential 
      sale in the works?  Going from GREAT to HORRIBLE please rank them 
      equal to (choose one)

      - "Ghandi has serious competition compared to my Mentor saleman!" (or)
      - "I want to base my whole life philosophy around you." friends (or)
      - "Please!, Marry my daughter!" good friends (or)
      - Helpful friends (or)
      - Helpful business acqaintances (or)
      - Helpful Deparment store cashiers (or)
      - Indifferent Department store cashiers (or)
      - New Car salesmen (or)
      - Door-to-Door vacuum cleaner salesmen (or)
      - Used Car salesmen (or)
      - Con artists just a few steps ahead of the law (or)
      - Congressmen and/or convicted con-artists 

  8.) What's the most POSTIVE Mentor related experience you've had?  If you 
  were made "Wally-Rhines-for-a-day," what would you NOT change about Mentor?

  9.) What's the most NEGATIVE Mentor related experience you've had?  If you
  were made "Wally-Rhines-for-a-day," what would you change about Mentor?

 10.) What specifically do you techinally like about their tools?  What's their
      best tool?  What's their worst tool?  Why?  (Give details.)

 11.) Do Mentor's point tools play nice with other Mentor point tools?  Do
      Mentor point tools play nice with non-Mentor tools?  (Give specifics.)

 12.) Overall, how you rank Mentor compared to other EDA companies you've 
      dealt with?  Far better, far worst, about average?

Again, my asking these questions is to get you to tell me what you think 
about Mentor as a whole and concerning specific products & services they
offer.  No names nor sources will be used in reporting the general user 
views of Mentor.  Thank you for your time!  :^)

                           - John Cooley
                             Part Time EDA Consumer Advocate
                             Full Time ASIC, FPGA & EDA Design Consultant

===========================================================================
 Trapped trying to figure out a Synopsys bug?  Want to hear how 3713 other
 users dealt with it ?  Then join the E-Mail Synopsys Users Group (ESNUG)!
 
      !!!     "It's not a BUG,               jcooley@world.std.com
     /o o\  /  it's a FEATURE!"                 (508) 429-4357
    (  >  )
     \ - /     - John Cooley, EDA & ASIC Design Consultant in Synopsys,
     _] [_         Verilog, VHDL and numerous Design Methodologies.

     Holliston Poor Farm, P.O. Box 6222, Holliston, MA  01746-6222
   Legal Disclaimer: "As always, anything said here is only opinion."


Article: 2138
Subject: For Sale:Chronology Docutime
From: jfmaher@aol.com (JFMAHER)
Date: 19 Oct 1995 08:15:52 -0400
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
I have a Chronology docutime (entry level timing designer) for sale.  My
employer finally purchased the professional version so I have no need for
it.  I have org disks, key, and all doc.  Maintenance can be renewed for
$99.  The package cost $495; I would like to get $250.  Thanks, John Maher
jomah@aol.com


Article: 2139
Subject: Re: one-hot encoding for fsm's
From: msmail@newbridge.com (Morgan Smail)
Date: 19 Oct 1995 13:28:48 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Michael Kim (michaelk@macs.ee.mcgill.ca) wrote:
: A few weeks ago there was a discussion on how using one-hot
: encoding could speed up fsm's.  I followed these discussions
: closely and I downloaded Xilinx's manuals for info on how to
: write the VHDL code.  For a 14 state fsm I added the
: following code in order to use one-hot encoding:

: TYPE STATE_TYPE IS (S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, S8, S9, S10, S11,
:                     S12, S13, S14);
: ATTRIBUTE ENUM_ENCODING : STRING;

: ATTRIBUTE ENUM_ENCODING OF STATE_TYPE : TYPE IS "00000000000001 00000000000010 0
: 0000000000100 00000000001000 00000000010000 00000000100000 00000001000000 000000
: 10000000 00000100000000 00001000000000 00010000000000 00100000000000 01000000000
: 000 10000000000000 ";

: I took it on faith that using one-hot encoding would speed up my fsm's.
: However, just for fun I tried to use the minimum number of bits to
: encode my fsm.  For instance, in the above example I wrote:

: TYPE STATE_TYPE IS (S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, S8, S9, S10, S11,
:                     S12, S13, S14);
: ATTRIBUTE ENUM_ENCODING : STRING;

: ATTRIBUTE ENUM_ENCODING OF STATE_TYPE : TYPE IS "0000 0001 0010 0011 0100 0101 0110 0111 1000 1001 1010 1011 1100 1101 ";

: I compiled several fsm's that I had designed using Synopsys 3.0b and
: XACT 5.1 and I compared the estimated clocking speed using xdelay
: for fsm's that use one-hot encoding and just regular encoding (fewest
: number of bits).  Here are my results:

: FSM with 16 states, 32 transitions, 3 inputs, and 19 outputs:
: 	     one-hot     regular encoding
: 4010PG191-6  11.0 MHz        13.8 MHz
: 4010PG191-4  15.0 MHz	     18.9 MHz

: FSM with 22 states, 51 transitions, 13 inputs, and 37 outputs:
: 	     one-hot     regular encoding
: 4010PG191-6   7.7 MHz	     10.8 MHz
: 4010PG191-4  10.5 MHz        14.8 MHz

: FSM with 14 states, 30 transitions, 16 inputs, and 16 outputs:
: 	     one-hot     regular encoding
: 4010PG191-6  10.6 MHz        13.6 MHz
: 4010PG191-4  14.5 MHz        18.6 MHz

: I also tried compiling one of the fsm's using Synopsys 3.3b:

: FSM with 14 states, 30 transitions, 16 inputs, and 16 outputs:
: 	     one-hot     regular encoding
: 4010PG191-6  10.0 MHz        10.0 MHz
: 4010PG191-4  13.3 MHz        13.9 MHz


: All of the above results are puzzling.  When I use Synopsys 3.0b,
: I get the exact opposite results when I use one-hot encoding -
: it slows the fsm down!  The findings are not as marked when I
: use Synopsys 3.3b but for the -4 speed grade I still find the
: same result.  Am I doing something wrong?  Has anyone else
: noticed this?

: Mike

: --


:       _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
:      _/   Michael C. Kim, Master's Candidate             _/
:     _/   Microelectronics and Computer Systems Lab      _/
:    _/   McGill University, Montreal, Canada            _/
:   _/   Email: michaelk@macs.ee.mcgill.ca              _/
:  _/   Phone: (514) 398-3937  Fax: (514) 398-4470     _/
: _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/


--

I don't know a lot about SYNOPSYS tools but I suspect that your
definition of the states is not quite correct.  With 1-hot encoding
you are defining only 1 bit to have significance at any given time.
Therefore, your state encoding should imply that if a bit is set the
synthesizer does not need to ensure that all the other bits are not set.
In EXEMPLAR you can do this by defining a ONEHOT attribute or in a similar manner
to what you detailed except that the state definition can contain a '-' to
make sure that decoding of the state is limited to the single bit.

What you have done with your encoding has probably led to a widening of the
input terms in front of the FF's of the state machine and this leads to
multiple LUT levels and larger fanout of the signals.


                                      ||||
Morgan Smail                    ||||\ ||||   tel:
Newbridge Networks Corporation  ||||\\||||       613-599-3600
600 March Road P.O Box 13600    ||||\\\|||   ext:
Kanata, Ontario, Canada         ||||\\\\||       6481
K2K 2E6                         |||| \\\\|   fax:
msmail@newbridge.com            ||||             613-599-3656


Article: 2140
Subject: PC Silos and DOS/16M
From: floyd@wmi.com (Floyd Miller)
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 13:30:23 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
 I am using PC/Silos that runs with the DOS/16M extender.
 DOS/16M will not start when I have 40MB of RAM in my machine.
 It complains that there is not enough memory to start up LOADER.
 If I take out 8MB, leaving 32MB, it is happy.  My theory is that
 DOS/16M uses a signed, 16-bit integer variable for the memory size
 if K-bytes.  So if there is over 32 MB it sees the memory size
 as negative or, at best, N - 32 MB.

 Does anyone know of a more modern version of DOS/16M?  I know there
 is a newer version version of Silos but it requires Windows.


-- 
 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 
*  Floyd Miller             floyd@wmi.com         *
*  Woodward McCoach, Inc.   West Chester, PA  USA *
 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Article: 2141
Subject: Re: one-hot encoding for fsm's
From: djg@tas.com (David Gesswein)
Date: 19 Oct 1995 10:18:42 -0400
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
In article <463qj1$b6o@sifon.cc.mcgill.ca>,
Michael Kim <michaelk@macs.ee.mcgill.ca> wrote:
>A few weeks ago there was a discussion on how using one-hot
>encoding could speed up fsm's.  I followed these discussions
>closely and I downloaded Xilinx's manuals for info on how to
>write the VHDL code.  For a 14 state fsm I added the
>following code in order to use one-hot encoding:
>

<Much deleted showing state assignments and benchmarks>

<Many words trying to explain what I have found out with Viewlogic and
 Xilinx added>

I have done some testing with the Viewlogic tools and Xilinx parts.
You only save with one hot if you tell the synthesis tool that only
one bit in the state vector needs to be checked for when we are in a
state.  If you have (pseudocode, not VHDL)

S0 = "0000000001"

IF (or CASE) state = S0

this will generate a 10 bit wide AND which is very slow (specially with
Viewlogic which daisy chains the function when synthesizing it, supposed
to be fixed in next release).

If you tool supports don't cares such as

S0 = "XXXXXXXXX1"

Then the IF becomes a test of one bit.

I would be interested in knowing if other tools support don't care on
assignments.  Viewlogic doesn't, they are treated as 0.  Email me
(djg@tas.com) if you know.

You get the same problem on assigning the new state assignment.  If you
have other functions which recover from entering bad states so you don't
care what happens when more than one bit is set you have to write
somewhat strange VHDL to do this since their is no way in VHDL to say that
only one bit should be set so extra logic reductions can be done.  Some
tools have a option to say that one hot encoding is being done so they
will do this (Viewlogic says this will be in their next release).

If S0x is the don't care version and S0 is the normal version this
is most efficient version (smallest # of terms in each equation generated) 
I could find with the Viewlogic tool is.

new_state = "0000000000"
IF state = S0x 
   new_state = new_state OR S1
END IF
IF state = S1x
   new_state = new_state OR S2
END IF

Other forms like case have additional logic saying the equivalent of
IF not state 0 and not state 1 and not state 2 and state 3 then...

Without tool support for one hot I could not figure any way in the VHDL
language to specify things so that if you have a test in most of your
states that caused it to go to one state it could do the following 
optimization.

Example if signal test caused transition to S0 in all states except 2 it would 
generate an equation like

new bit 0 = (state bit 0 & test) | (state bit 1 & test) | (state bit 3 & test)

with one hot encoding you can rewrite this (because only one bit is allowed
to be set) as

new bit 0 = test and not (state bit 2)


Try this and let me know what the results are

David Gesswein
djg@tas.com



Article: 2142
Subject: Where to find more info on PCI
From: wen-king@myri.com (Wen-King Su)
Date: 19 Oct 1995 07:21:28 -0700
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
In my current project I need to design a PCI interface using FPGA.  I
have the official PCI spec book, but I need more information on the actual
implementations that are out there.  For example, what is the maximum
"cache line size" that people actually use in their machine.  It will
have an effect on how complicated the FPGA code will be.  Do I need a
cache line size computation circuit on the whole 8 bits for the write
line and invalide operation?  Also what is the maximum DMA throughput
between device and memory I can expect on a real system under each transfer
type.  Any info or pointers to info will be appreciated.  Thanks. 

Wen-King Su, wen-king@myri.com, wen-king@cs.caltech.edu


Article: 2143
Subject: Re: Needed: Suggestions for FPGA design CAD
From: ejessen@ix.netcom.com (Erik Jessen)
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 95 15:43:03 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
In article <45svp2$jml@marina.cinenet.net>,
   kirani@cinenet.net (kayvon irani) wrote:
We had 20-odd Synario seats, between PC and Sun.  It's a very
solid tool, and available on both platforms.  No simulator,
but it does have a waveform viewer that links to the schematic-
capture tool (but, you would need to get your data into their
waveform-database format).

Hope this helps,


Article: 2144
Subject: Re: one-hot encoding for fsm's
From: landowsk@eda.mke.ab.com (Roger Landowski)
Date: 19 Oct 1995 20:00:03 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Try using enumerated encoding, and passing the design through the Synopsys Finite State Machine compiler. I have
found that this tool does a very good job of FSM optimization, and will consistently produce a one-hot design
which will run as fast, or faster than a minimally encoded equivlent.






Article: 2145
Subject: Re: Where to find more info on PCI
From: roland@heureka.inka.de (Roland Knapp)
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 21:30:29 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
wen-king@myri.com (Wen-King Su) wrote:

>In my current project I need to design a PCI interface using FPGA.  I
>have the official PCI spec book, but I need more information on the actual
>implementations that are out there. 
>...
>Any info or pointers to info will be appreciated.  Thanks. 

Try the PCI-SIG homepage:

http://www.teleport.com/~pc2/pcisigindex.html

Roland.



Article: 2146
Subject: Re: Needed: Suggestions for FPGA design CAD
From: Tom Bowns <bowns@data-io.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 22:17:14 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
ejessen@ix.netcom.com (Erik Jessen) wrote:
>In article <45svp2$jml@marina.cinenet.net>,
>   kirani@cinenet.net (kayvon irani) wrote:
>We had 20-odd Synario seats, between PC and Sun.  It's a very
>solid tool, and available on both platforms.  No simulator,
>but it does have a waveform viewer that links to the schematic-
>capture tool (but, you would need to get your data into their
>waveform-database format).
>
>Hope this helps,

Just want to clarify here:

The Synario product itself runs on the PC, under Windows. It has both 
Verilog and VHDL simulation systems.

One of the products in the Synario line is the Engineering Capture 
System, or ECS, which is available for both PC and Sun. It is Schematic 
entry and netlisting with links to most popular CAD back-end tools, and a 
do-it-yourself processor interface kit for those with special interface 
requirements.

-TBB




Article: 2147
Subject: Re: Xilinx Configuration Memory Hacking
From: fmicale@motown.ge.com (Francesco Micale, X4438)
Date: 20 Oct 1995 00:05:24 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
You can avoid an invalid bitstream causing any havoc by specifying CRC inclusion
in the bitstream. That will cause the device to abort during programming, and 
stay in its quiescent mode. At least it does in XC40xx series devices.
-fm




Article: 2148
Subject: subscribe
From: sharono@ukefl.demon.co.uk
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 1995 05:56:04 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
subscribe comp-arch-fpga@super.org sharono@ukefl.demon.co.uk
 


Article: 2149
Subject: Xilinx 5000 - any user feedback?
From: Simon Bacon <SimonBacon@tile.demon.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 95 08:26:01 GMT
Links: << >>  << T >>  << A >>
Has anyone managed to migrate a design from Xilinx 4K to 5K
to see how they stack up in practice?

Does the claim 'one 5K CLB = two 4K CLB' work out, provided
the 4K memory feature is not used?

-- 
Simon Bacon




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