Recommend me a high level synthesis tools for FPGA

[asoom]

hi all,

i am implementing my graduation project with a xilinx spartan3 fpga, i want some advice regarding the synthesis tool that i should use..

what am looking for is a high level synthesis tool, the solutions that i have found so far are the mentor catapults and simulink, my info about both of them is so little and i need advice from someone with experience in this domain...

which one shall i use, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each of them? shall i stick to the xilinx ise synthesizer? or is there any other way to do that with another high level tool?

am looking for your advice, since this is the first experience for me in fpga design.... any help will be so much appreciated..

thanx in advance
best regards

 

[r_a_c_a_4_u]

looking for advice!

you can use system generator ...it will giv you xilinx blocksets which can be converted to VHDL code and then you can implement it

using system generator you will be able to simulate ... blocks from m file , coregen , vhdl files , verilog files ... all schematically . offcourse you must know the coding part.

simulink and sys gen will run on matlab ... so it will provide with matlab functionality too. .. sysgen also will allow you to see your output waveforms in other simulators ... thus hardware co-simulation is also possible using sysgen ...

but with ease of schematics there are many problems also that you will face ...as im facing of now... if you go with pure VHDL/VERILOG its codin and only coding ... but hardware co-simulation becomes diffcult ... so to make a perfect design ... start with simulink ... then as you come to know more about stuffs you will be engrosed in it and you will enjoy ... as im enjoyin now .. though there are lots of complications with some lilttle help from EDA forum ... i have to wait a lot for help ... over here ... but there is no option that i have ...

i hope im helpin you out ..... bye tc

 

[asoom]

Re: looking for advice!

thanx alot for your help...

but do you know where can i get simulink and system generator?

 

[r_a_c_a_4_u]

looking for advice!

you have to buy the softwares .... and there are a lot of compatibility issues of the versions of different softwares ...

if u are using sysgen 7.1 you need a MATLAB R14 or R14.1 or 14.2
and the compatible ISE for that is ISE 7.1i

for other compatible softwares search on xilinx.com

 

[asoom]

Re: looking for advice!

isn't there any other way to get them?

any other more flexible tool, i mean without as much constraints on the compatibility?

 

[r_a_c_a_4_u]

looking for advice!

i dont think there is a single tool

...i think mathworks and xilinx have monopoly in these area .... so you cant help ... you will have to buy those products ..