[old software] XC3000/A Software

[DeepTHought]

Hi all

I'm new in this forum. I'm starting with FPGAs and I'm crazy about vintage electronics. I have bought a bunch of XC3030s and i wanted to do something with them but i have found that old software is requiered and Xilinx is no longer suplying it (Xactstep/Foundation 1.5).

I saw in a post from 2007 that someone had uploaded Foundation 1.5i to rapidshare but the links are dead for a long time. I have managed to get 3.1i and 4.1i but none of them support the XC3000 series (a shame, provided that they were manufactured until at least 2007). Does anyone have any idea of how to get it? I'm just an engineering student and I'm no planning to use it in a company nor anything like that, it is just for learning. I would be glad if someone reuploaded it or something.

I have seen Xactstep on eBay, if I can not obtain it by any other way I think i will buy it and then I will share it, but i wil try searching it first.

Thank you

 

[barry]

Have you tried contacting Xilinx directly? You might also want to post something on their forums.

 

[DeepTHought]

Hi Barry

Thanks for your reply.
No, i haven´t posted it in the Xilinx forums because i have read many posts about this in them and the advice always was "throw away those old FPGAs because they are obsolete". I understand that people who works in this area is a pro and needs the ultimate stuff and I think we have a different point of view. Some companies throw away their old products when new generations are developed but sometimes those things are still rocking in industry/defense because their life cycle is way longer.

Indeed, the first time I ever saw an FPGA was an XC4000 in a proprietary VME board that was still working.

As regards to asking Xilinx directly, I read that they couldn't create "new seats" on XACT because there was some lawsuits with ALDEC because of Viewlogic but maybe I should give it a try.

 

[TrickyDicky]

Good luck.
As a hobby student, you'll be at the back of any queue regarding request. But they really are ancient parts and wont teach you much that will apply to modern parts. Plus the compiler is probably terrible.
I suggest bin the parts, and buy a new, cheap dev board that is still supported. You can get low end boards for <$100. It probably has 100x the capabilites of the chips you bought.

 

[ads-ee]

Besides what Tricky says, you would also have to deal with obtaining a copy of Windows 95 to run the software on. It might work with Windows NT but it is highly unlikely to work with a newer OS.

If you manage to get all that installed don't expect very quick build times, 2+ hours was normal for a design that didn't have much more than 40% utilization (which would take less than 10% of a not so modern part such as a Spartan-6 LX9)

Antiquated obsolete part
The 3030 has:
100 CLBs in a 10x10 array
A CLB has, 2x FF and a LUT that can implement 4 and 5 input functions that have shared inputs
80 I/O pins
360 Total FFs (including the ones in the I/O)
Requires obsolete SW and OS and JTAG parallel port programmer or eprom to configure.

Older generation, soon to be obsolete, ISE (old generation tools, soon to be discontinued)
A Spartan 6 LX9 for $89 has:
1430 Slices
A Slice has 4x 6-input LUTs and 8x FFs (5720 LUTs and 11440 FFs)
576 Kb of block memory
16 DSP slices
200 I/O
2 CMT (a CMT has 1x PLL and 2x DCM)
2 Memory controller blocks (i.e. for DDR/DDR2/3/LPDDR memory)

Modern part, current generation, Vivado tool suite with integrated mixed mode simulator
A Zynq-7000 (7Z007S), Avnet MiniZed for $89 has:
ARM Cortex-A9
Processsing system with a bunch of peripherals (which I'm not listing)
14400 LUTs, 28800 FFs
1.8 Mb of Block RAM
66 DSP slices
XADC (integrated on die 12-bit ADC)


Looking at the 3030 in comparison to the two newer parts shows how much bigger and better they are. Using the 3030 and all the headaches to even get the tools running on a system with be an entirely wasted effort and is an unmarketable skill. Foundation won't even give you VHDL/Verilog skills, it used a schematic entry tool, that is no longer even available.

But hey if you are dead set on resurrecting a dead end device and creating designs that have to be hand routed to achieve even 20 MHz performance (stay well under 10 MHz if you want the place and route to work). I have a copy of Foundation 1.5 collecting dust somewhere (along with a DLC7 parallel cable IV), but it will cost you (might as well recoup my original purchase price and all the maintenance I paid for 3 years).

My advice don't spend >$500 on my Foundation 1.5 software and just buy a new board $89 and get the free tools that either come with the board or can be downloaded from Xilinx's web site. I guarantee you don't want the junk I have...I wasn't even planning on mentioning that I have the software you want, because if I sold it to you I'd just be ripping you off.