Xilinx Foundation 2
Xilinx 3.1i Startup Tutorial: (Original Idea by Greg Helm(GTA 2001) for Xilinx 2.1i tutorial)
Modified and Edited by Karthikeyan Balasundaram & Sridhar Ramachandran (Dec 2002)
For the Laboratory Projects in this course we will be using the Xilinx Foundation tools for Schematic Entry and for simulations. There are many other aspects to the Xilinx tools that are not relevant to work in this course, and they will not be discussed. You are welcome to explore the full capabilities of the tools, but it is at you own risk.
First. Open the Project manager. Double click the “Project Manager” icon on your desktop.
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This will bring up project manager GUI and ask you which project to open or if you would like to create a new project
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We will create a new project…
Sometimes, we open our old project. We click cancel and scroll the “file” in the Project Manager window (covered at the later part of the tutorial)
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Make sure to put your project in the D:\STUDENT directory… this should be the default and this is where you have write privileges on the laboratory machines.
Choose the Schematic Design flow… we will always use the schematic flow for this course.
Choose a part from the 4000E family. The libraries for these devices are installed on all of the lab machines. If you are installing at home make sure to include support for the 4000E devices. The specific part type does not matter. We will not be downloading a design to a part.
Once you have started a new project, you should see the following display in your project manager…
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Next we need to start a new schematic page.
In the Design Entry box on the Project Manager, click the “AND GATE”. This will open the schematic editor and create a new schematic page for you.
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You should now have an empty schematic page…
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Please refer to the following page for a labeled diagram of the schematic toolbars
Pointer Tool – used for selecting and moving objects
Hierarchy Tool – use to ascend/descend hierarchy blocks
Library Toolbox – the parts are available here
Draw Wire – add nets to your schematic
Draw Bus – add busses to your schematic
Bus Tap Tool – add connections to busses
Label Tool – add labels to wires and busses
Hierarchy Connector – add I/O that traverses hierarchy levels
Graphic Tools – add text and graphics for documentation purposes
Simulation Toolbox – add probes for simulation
Simulator – open the simulator
To draw your schematic… first click the library toolbox this will bring up a window with the available library parts.
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To add a part to your schematic, just double-click the part in the library toolbox. If you single click a brief description of the part will be displayed in the lower part of the toolbox.
(Your TA will specify legal part choices).
Here is a simple AND gate circuit. Note: You use hierarchical ports for Inputs and Outputs… this may be beneficial to you in this course, since we are not actually downloading to a part.
Step 1:
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Step 2:
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Step 3:
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Make sure to label all of your nets.
Use all CAPITAL letters and no spaces.
Legal characters are “A-Z”, “0-9”, “_”, “-“
Do not end bus names with a number.
Busses can be tricky. Label all bus segments, and ask your TA for help if you need it.
Using the Simulator
You will become very familiar with the simulator throughout this course.
First click the “Simulation Toolbox” button to bring up the simulation toolbox.
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The probe tool is the only tool you should need here for the time being.
Select the probe tool and then click on all of the net labels that you wish to view in the simulation. A small box will appear next to each selected signal.
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After you have selected your signals click on the “simulator” button (either in the schematic editor toolbar or in the simulation toolbox. This will bring up the simulator with all of the signals that you have added probes to. The following diagram shows the Simulator with all of the signals selected from our and gate circuit.
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Now we need to add a stimulator to our inputs…
Click the “Select Stimulators” button in the simulator toolbar (refer to attached diagram on the following page.)
This will bring up the Select Stimulator Window…
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Now you can choose a method for controlling your inputs.
You can assign a keyboard key or a bit from a binary counter. You can also specify formulas and clocks (those will be discussed in the future).
Assigning a keyboard key is handy for your personal testing. Using counter bits is better for generating complete tests of combinatorial circuit (which you will be doing in the first lab)
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To add a stimulator click the signal name in the Simulation window to highlight it, then click the button of your choice in the “Stimulator Selection” Window. The name of the stimulus should then appear beside the signal name…
I have applied the two least significant bits of the binary counter (B0 and B1) to A and B, my primary inputs.
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Once you have set up your input stimulus, close the “Stimulator Selection “ window and prepare to simulate.
All you need to do now is click the “Step” button (footprints) in order to simulate your design.
It may be necessary to zoom in or out to view the waveforms.
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Notice that A toggles at twice the rate of B, this is because they are assigned to binary counter bits.
For this course we will perform functional simulations, which mean that there are no delays in our circuit elements.
If you examine the patterns an A, B, and C you will notice that our circuit does behave like an AND gate… C is only high when both A and B are high.
Well, that is a rough start to drawing a schematic and simulating. Feel free to experiment and ask your TA questions if you are having problems.
Now we will take a quick look at adding hierarchical elements to our design. This will be done where the lab handout specifies a “user-defined circuit”. Hierarchy will be discussed more thoroughly during the 2nd week of lab.
To create a hierarchical block from an existing schematic several things are necessary
1. Draw the Schematic
2. Attach all inputs and outputs to Hierarchy connectors
3. Click “Hierarchy” in the Schematic editor Window and choose ”Create Macro Symbol From Current Sheet”
Here is our AND gate circuit
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Here is the menu selection for creating a user-defined macro…
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After you click” Create Macro Symbol from Current Sheet” you will get a new window…
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Give the symbol a name. Here the symbol is named ANDG. After you press OK a new part will be added to your library, with that name.
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Next you will need to open a new schematic sheet, which will become your top-level sheet.
Do this by clicking File -> New Sheet in the Schematic editor menu bar.
Now you can begin a new schematic.
If you click the library toolbox you will find a new entry for your previous schematic…
Now you can add that to your design just like any other part.
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You can descend into your part to look at the schematic by selecting the “Hierarchy Tool” Do push down a level double-click on the symbol you wish to enter. To pop back up a level double-click on white-space in your schematic.
Finally we will discuss where your files are located.
Your design files will be stored in the directory (D:\STUDENT) that you specified when you created your project.
In that directory will be a projectname.pdf and a subdirectory with the same name that will contain the schematic design files.
You need to keep copies of both the .PDF file and the project directory. Since multiple people will be using the lab PCs, try not to leave your files on the hard drive also try to choose a unique project name.
The Xilinx foundation tools also provide the capability to archive a project this is the recommended method for you to save your files.
We archive it in 3 directories for storage:
1) D directory for saving in the computer (recommended for FTP use only)
2) A directory for saving in the floppy
3) E directory for saving in the zip disc
In the “Project Manager” menu bar select “File -> Archive Project”.
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This will give you the following window…
Using password is very important for this course and we make it compulsory the whole of this quarter. “Comment” could also be used in order for your better understanding of your project.
To save in the D directory
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To save in the floppy disc
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To save in the Zip disc (password very important)
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Specify the location where you would like the compressed .ZIP file to be stored and click next
Select Entire Project.
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Click Next…
You will now see this window…
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Click Start…
Your project will then be zipped and you can find projectname.zip at the location you specified.
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To restore your files, in the “Project Manager” menu bar select “File -> Restore Project”.
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Go to the D directory
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Select Student folder and select the zip file of your project
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Then specify your .zip file. Next, you will see the following window…
Just follow the prompts.
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To delete the project, in the “Project Manager” menu bar select “File -> Delete Project”.
We make it compulsory that everyone should delete their project after they are done working on it. Of course you delete it only after you have saved it successfully.
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Select the project name to be deleted
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Select yes to delete the project
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To delete the zip file, go to file -> restore project, select the zip file and right click to get the delete provision. Activate the delete by clicking yes
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This should be enough to get you started. For additional tutorials, you can check the Xilinx Website () and additional tutorials will be created throughout the quarter.
Good luck.
If you have any problems, do not hesitate to ask your TA.
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