FPGA Central

I'm trying to figure out if it is possible to use partitions
using either command line flow (I want to integrate it into a
Makefile environment) or at least using xflow.

So far I have come to the conclusion that there is no documentation
at all on how to use it outside of Project Navigator. Something
which also annoys me is that it seems like the entire design is
synthesized (without any optimization I presume) every time I save a
file in ISE if partitions are enabled. Using some -XstNtrc switch
to xst which is not documented anywhere that I can find. And it
seems like xst also gets an -ise switch which points to the .ise
binary blob. (This means that it takes about a minute to save a
small file in ISE because it waits for xst to complete...)


/Andreas

Hi Andreas,
ISE 8.2 has a tcl interface and supports partitions,
Aurash

Andreas Ehliar wrote:

>I'm trying to figure out if it is possible to use partitions
>using either command line flow (I want to integrate it into a
>Makefile environment) or at least using xflow.
>
>So far I have come to the conclusion that there is no documentation
>at all on how to use it outside of Project Navigator. Something
>which also annoys me is that it seems like the entire design is
>synthesized (without any optimization I presume) every time I save a
>file in ISE if partitions are enabled. Using some -XstNtrc switch
>to xst which is not documented anywhere that I can find. And it
>seems like xst also gets an -ise switch which points to the .ise
>binary blob. (This means that it takes about a minute to save a
>small file in ISE because it waits for xst to complete...)
>
>
>/Andreas
>
>


--
__
/ /\/\ Aurelian Lazarut
\ \ / System Verification Engineer
/ / \ Xilinx Ireland
\_\/\/

phone: 353 01 4032639
fax: 353 01 4640324

On 2006-10-06, Aurelian Lazarut <aurash@xilinx.com> wrote:
> Hi Andreas,
> ISE 8.2 has a tcl interface and supports partitions,

Yes, I've read that part of the documentation. But my problem
is (correct me if I'm wrong here) that there is no information
about how to use the tcl interface unless the project navigator
GUI is started. Is it even possible to do so?

If not, is it possible to start project navigator and force it
to run a certain tcl script at startup?


For automatic regression testing for example, it is not really
acceptable that you have to start a GUI and manually compile the
project. In fact, you probably don't want to start a GUI at all
since you are probably running it from a cronjob...

Another reason would be that it would be nice if partitions could
be used in flows that do not use Project Navigator such as the
one used in FPGA Advantage where only the Xilinx backend tools
are used.

My personal reason is that I'm not very fond of Project Navigator,
it is basically too sluggish and it doesn't interact well with
dual head. I also don't like the idea of putting all project
data in a binary blob (.ise) which is quite hard on revision
control systems [1]. I use emacs to edit all files anyway so my
only use for project navigator is basically to press the
"Generate bitfile" button.



/Andreas

[1] I know that you (nowadays) can use tcl to export and import
files which makes this situation better but still awkward.

I'm not an expert in tcl & ISE file but ASFAIK with the tcl console
does't need the GUI , you can find more information in the software docs
(I just checked the ISE help)
Have fun,
Aurash
Andreas Ehliar wrote:

>On 2006-10-06, Aurelian Lazarut <aurash@xilinx.com> wrote:
>
>
>>Hi Andreas,
>>ISE 8.2 has a tcl interface and supports partitions,
>>
>>
>
>Yes, I've read that part of the documentation. But my problem
>is (correct me if I'm wrong here) that there is no information
>about how to use the tcl interface unless the project navigator
>GUI is started. Is it even possible to do so?
>
>If not, is it possible to start project navigator and force it
>to run a certain tcl script at startup?
>
>
>For automatic regression testing for example, it is not really
>acceptable that you have to start a GUI and manually compile the
>project. In fact, you probably don't want to start a GUI at all
>since you are probably running it from a cronjob...
>
>Another reason would be that it would be nice if partitions could
>be used in flows that do not use Project Navigator such as the
>one used in FPGA Advantage where only the Xilinx backend tools
>are used.
>
>My personal reason is that I'm not very fond of Project Navigator,
>it is basically too sluggish and it doesn't interact well with
>dual head. I also don't like the idea of putting all project
>data in a binary blob (.ise) which is quite hard on revision
>control systems [1]. I use emacs to edit all files anyway so my
>only use for project navigator is basically to press the
>"Generate bitfile" button.
>
>
>
>/Andreas
>
>[1] I know that you (nowadays) can use tcl to export and import
> files which makes this situation better but still awkward.
>
>


--
__
/ /\/\ Aurelian Lazarut
\ \ / System Verification Engineer
/ / \ Xilinx Ireland
\_\/\/

phone: 353 01 4032639
fax: 353 01 4640324

Use xtclsh.

Whatever commands related to creating a project, adding files and
setting partitions you might do through the GUI's tcl console, you can
do in this shell.

You can script it and avoid the GUI, as you see fit.

Other tcl shells might also work. ymmv

On 2006-10-12, wolfco2006@yahoo.com <wolfco2006@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Use xtclsh.

Thank you! I must have overlooked any reference to xtclsh in the
documentation.

/Andreas