Philip,

If you get a chance, play with the DSP blocks. The speeds in there are much
more impressive than the speeds of the fabric.

Philip Freidin wrote:

> Well,
> Xilinx shipped me my Foundation 6.3i software update,
> and since it has the initial support for Virtex 4,
> I installed it and did a design.
>
> Here it is:
>
> ====
>
> module top(in_bus,out_bus);
> input [15:0] in_bus;
> output [15:0] out_bus;
>
> assign out_bus = {in_bus[14:0],in_bus[15]};
>
> endmodule
>
> ====
>
> Par Report (trimmed):
>
> Release 6.3i Par G.35
> Copyright (c) 1995-2004 Xilinx, Inc. All rights reserved.
> Thu Sep 02 19:16:08 2004
> Loading device database for application Par from file "top_map.ncd".
> "top" is an NCD, version 2.38, device xc4vfx12, package sf363, speed -11
> Loading device for application Par from file '4vfx12.nph' in environment
> Device speed data version: PREVIEW 1.46 2004-07-09.
> Device utilization summary:
> Number of External IOBs 32 out of 240 13%
> Number of LOCed External IOBs 0 out of 32 0%
>
> Total REAL time to PAR completion: 19 secs
> Total CPU time to PAR completion: 18 secs
>
> Peak Memory Usage: 105 MB
>
> Placement: Completed - No errors found.
> Routing: Completed - No errors found.
>
> ====
>
> Some of the manuals are single page PDFs, that point you to
> the web site to get the real thing.
>
> Although you all do HDL designs only, you might want to get
> the Schematic Designers library guide as well as the HDL guide,
> as the HDL one is 290 pages, and the schematic one is 700 pages.
> Most of the extra stuff is stuff you don't need, such as 4 bit
> counter macros, but there are also some things that are pretty
> interesting that seem to have been left out of the HDL version.
> Probably fixed in the next version.
>
> FPGA editor shows lots of interesting new stuff. Still waiting
> for a data sheet, as the FPGA editor shows you details of the
> forest from the perspective of having your nose pressed against
> a huge tree :-) and the library guides is mostly very detailed
> for simple stuff like logic and FF primitives, and not nearly
> as much info as you might want for the complex stuff.
>
> If this is the sort of thing you like, then you will probably
> like this sort of thing.
>
> Philip
>
> Philip Freidin
> Fliptronics

--
--Ray Andraka, P.E.
President, the Andraka Consulting Group, Inc.
401/884-7930 Fax 401/884-7950
email [email protected]
http://www.andraka.com

"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin, 1759