fpga - Xillinx limitations

[mstaylor97]

Working with LV and LV FPGA 2012, I've found that the Xilinx tools do not have associated shortcuts in the start menu.  However, I can start ISE and Coregen in standalone mode (from the ..13_4\bin\nt directory).  I also don't see any of the Xilinx environment variables I'm use to seeing with Xilinx installs.  I'm trying to find out what limitations exist with the ISE 13.4 installation that's apparently only "sort of" installed with LV FPGA.  I can't really find any NI documentation addressing this.  We're only planning on targeting a FlexRIO board, so it's not an issue if there's target-centric limitations.  But the main thing I'm curious about is developing and compiling cores (probably based on Xilinx IP with some associated wrapper logic) to be dropped in to the IP-node in LV FPGA, and making sure that the Xilinx toolsuite can be configured to do so. 

Thanks,

Mark

[Intaris]

Your mail is a coherent statement, but I don't notice any concrete question in there.

What is it excactly you want to know?

You'll need to be a bit more specific than expressing curiosity about something.

Shane.

[mstaylor97]

LOL!!! I always try to proofread for grammatical errors, .... guess I forgot to pose a legitimate question

So, ultimately, I want to ensure that my "curious" statement is possible (compile stand-alone vhdl cores, including custom vhdl along with Xilinx coregen IP for use as drop-ins in the LV software either as CLIPs or IP-nodes) with the as included version of Xilinx, and what (if any) limitations exist with the bundled Xilinx suite?   I was just worried that since they didn't install the shortcuts, they didn't intend ISE to be used in stand-alone operation. 

I also have some sidebar questions that just came to mind while I'm at it:

1) Is there a way to create the shortcut menu for Xilinx (ie did I miss something in the install process)?

2) Can I install another version of Xilinx ISE on the same PC as LV FPGA if needed?  Not even sure what version it would be at this point (most likely (12.something or 14.7... not Vivado) but I'd like to know if either would cause problems with LV FPGA.

Thanks,

Mark

[James-B]

You definitely can install another version of Xilinx software on the same computer.  The only thing is sometimes when one version is uninstalled, other, still installed versions throw errors.

Just something to watch out for when installing different versions of the software.