Another Xilinx webpack download rant

[Nicolas Matringe]

Hello
I've been trying to download these 2.9GB for 3 days with numerous
retries (thanks to the download manager, the 'resume' resulted in a
restart from 0) and when I finally managed to get the full file it was
corrupted.
Now I want to order a DVD and when I click on the appropriate link on
the web site I get redirected to the home page.

Who at Xilinx wants to prevent people from using their products ?

Nico

 

[Mike Harrison]

On Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:08:51 -0700 (PDT), Nicolas Matringe <nic_o_mat@msn.com> wrote:

Hello
I've been trying to download these 2.9GB for 3 days with numerous
retries (thanks to the download manager, the 'resume' resulted in a
restart from 0) and when I finally managed to get the full file it was
corrupted.
Now I want to order a DVD and when I click on the appropriate link on
the web site I get redirected to the home page.

Who at Xilinx wants to prevent people from using their products ?

Maybe the same people that >1 year leadtimes are acceptable.

 

[maxascent]

I cant understand what was wrong with the old way of doing things i.e. jus
use your own download manager to get a zip file. Since they introduced th
new method I have never managed to get it to work. Every time I pause th
download it throws up an error when I try to resume it.

Jon

---------------------------------------
Posted through http://www.FPGARelated.com

 

[cfelton]

On Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:08:51 -0700 (PDT), Nicolas Matring
nic_o_mat@msn.com> wrote:

Hello
I've been trying to download these 2.9GB for 3 days with numerous
retries (thanks to the download manager, the 'resume' resulted in a
restart from 0) and when I finally managed to get the full file it was
corrupted.
Now I want to order a DVD and when I click on the appropriate link on
the web site I get redirected to the home page.

Who at Xilinx wants to prevent people from using their products ?

Maybe the same people that >1 year leadtimes are acceptable.

It sounds like, for serious product developers, that using Xilinx's lates
and greatest (devices and software) is not a great idea. The options ar
either stick with the older devices and software (11.3 been working ok fo
me). Or move to another FPGA manufacture that seems to be more consistent


Others have posted that Lattice seems to deliver better results but is
(perceived) generation behind. I say perceived because if you can't ge
the latest and greatest parts from X are they really ahead? Also, since
dropped NuHo it has been harder for me to get parts. NuHo distribute
Lattice so we are strongly considering Lattice for our next design.

There must be something to the quick / unstable latest and greates
releases. Because we all keep using their parts and some how putting u
with the issues.

Other than ISE we haven't had any huge issues with Xilinx (until the
dropped NuHo). We don't upgrade our ISE to the latest, we try desperatel
not to get the latest ISE.

Many have been interested in getting the latest X 7 series but then th
frustration mounted because no parts are actually available. I think th
car companies do the same thing? Generating hype, if it is good or ba
hype?

If you are using an older device (non-spartan6) you might want to tr
ISE10.x version (can it still be downloaded?).

.chris

---------------------------------------
Posted through http://www.FPGARelated.com

 

[Rob Gaddi]

On 7/15/2010 1:08 AM, Nicolas Matringe wrote:

Hello
I've been trying to download these 2.9GB for 3 days with numerous
retries (thanks to the download manager, the 'resume' resulted in a
restart from 0) and when I finally managed to get the full file it was
corrupted.
Now I want to order a DVD and when I click on the appropriate link on
the web site I get redirected to the home page.

Who at Xilinx wants to prevent people from using their products ?

Nico

Yeah, but at least it's down from 5.5GB to 3GB. That's nearly 40% fewer
places for your download to break. More to the point, that much smaller
of a package at least implies that Xilinx is finally starting to do some
much needed housecleaning in their software. Maybe by 13 it'll start
working the way it's supposed to.

--
Rob Gaddi, Highland Technology
Email address is currently out of order

 

[rich12345]

On Jul 15, 1:08 am, Nicolas Matringe <nic_o_...@msn.com> wrote:

Hello
I've been trying to download these 2.9GB for 3 days with numerous
retries (thanks to the download manager, the 'resume' resulted in a
restart from 0) and when I finally managed to get the full file it was
corrupted.

I had the same problem. I can't remember which browser wasn't working
(IExplorer or FireFox)..... But when I switched to the other browser,
the download worked fine with the download manager.


Rich

 

[Anssi Saari]

"maxascent" <maxascent@n_o_s_p_a_m.n_o_s_p_a_m.yahoo.co.uk> writes:

I cant understand what was wrong with the old way of doing things i.e. just
use your own download manager to get a zip file.

Likewise. Well, I once read some comments from some Linux distributor
which indicated almost no one uses download managers that can resume,
instead most people download files multiple times until they finally
succeed. So it makes some sense to try to push people into using a
download manager, even if it's primitive and easily avoided. But then
you have no chance to resume. And to think resuming downloads was
everyday stuff in the 1990's already...

Since they introduced the new method I have never managed to get it
to work. Every time I pause the download it throws up an error when
I try to resume it.

It has often worked for me, if I deliberately stop a download to
resume later. But if something actually goes wrong, then resuming is
unlikely to work...

Altera at least does actually provide a direct link to the file if the
download manager doesn't start. Doesn't help with Xilinx, though.

 

[Nicolas Matringe]

On 15 juil, 17:21, "cfelton"
<cfelton@n_o_s_p_a_m.n_o_s_p_a_m.ieee.org> wrote:

On Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:08:51 -0700 (PDT), Nicolas Matringe
nic_o_...@msn.com> wrote:

Hello
I've been trying to download these 2.9GB for 3 days with numerous
retries (thanks to the download manager, the 'resume' resulted in a
restart from 0) and when I finally managed to get the full file it was
corrupted.
Now I want to order a DVD and when I click on the appropriate link on
the web site I get redirected to the home page.

Who at Xilinx wants to prevent people from using their products ?

Maybe the same people that >1 year leadtimes are acceptable.

It sounds like, for serious product developers, that using Xilinx's latest
and greatest (devices and software) is not a great idea.  The options are
either stick with the older devices and software (11.3 been working ok for
me).  Or move to another FPGA manufacture that seems to be more consistent.
[...]

Well since the intent of all this was to do a quick FPGA benchmark it
seems that Xilinx earned a VERY bad mark there.
Altera wasn't very good either but I managed to install the software
once I got it.
Lattice's software comes through a normal file transfer, it is
perfectly handled by FireFox (I stopped the download yesterday night
and just resumed it. I only hope that the file won't be corrupted)
Actel's software went fine

Are Austin and Peter still reading this newsgroup ? Can you do
something about it ? Please ?

Nico

 

[Nicolas Matringe]

On 15 juil, 10:08, Nicolas Matringe <nic_o_...@msn.com> wrote:

Hello
I've been trying to download these 2.9GB for 3 days with numerous
retries (thanks to the download manager, the 'resume' resulted in a
restart from 0) and when I finally managed to get the full file it was
corrupted.

I finally managed to get the full file in running order after another
6 hours download, now I'm installing it.

Nico

 

[d_s_klein]

On Jul 15, 9:28 am, rich12345 <aiiad...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Jul 15, 1:08 am, Nicolas Matringe <nic_o_...@msn.com> wrote:

Hello
I've been trying to download these 2.9GB for 3 days with numerous
retries (thanks to the download manager, the 'resume' resulted in a
restart from 0) and when I finally managed to get the full file it was
corrupted.

I had the same problem.  I can't remember which browser wasn't working
(IExplorer or FireFox).....  But when I switched to the other browser,
the download worked fine with the download manager.

Rich

I had similar results. My thought was that it was a Java problem -
different browsers typically have different ways of dealing with
embedded Java.

RK.

 

[Socrates]

I had similar results.  My thought was that it was a Java problem -
different browsers typically have different ways of dealing with
embedded Java.

RK.

If there is a such need, I could mirror the image somewhere.

 

[Muzaffer Kal]

On Sat, 17 Jul 2010 03:14:05 -0700 (PDT), Socrates <mailsoc@gmail.com>
wrote:

I had similar results.  My thought was that it was a Java problem -
different browsers typically have different ways of dealing with
embedded Java.

RK.

If there is a such need, I could mirror the image somewhere.

Because of copyright issues, it wouldn't be advisable for you to
distribute Xilinx files without explicit permission. The best case
would be for Xilinx to have multiple servers for their own files.
--
Muzaffer Kal

DSPIA INC.
ASIC/FPGA Design Services

http://www.dspia.com

 

[dscolson@rcn.com]

On Jul 17, 3:42 pm, Muzaffer Kal <k...@dspia.com> wrote:

On Sat, 17 Jul 2010 03:14:05 -0700 (PDT), Socrates <mail...@gmail.com
wrote:

I had similar results.  My thought was that it was a Java problem -
different browsers typically have different ways of dealing with
embedded Java.

RK.

If there is a such need, I could mirror the image somewhere.

Because of copyright issues, it wouldn't be advisable for you to
distribute Xilinx files without explicit permission. The best case
would be for Xilinx to have multiple servers for their own files.
--
Muzaffer Kal

DSPIA INC.
ASIC/FPGA Design Services

http://www.dspia.com

I found that if when on the following page:
http://www.xilinx.com/support/download/index.htm

If click the *WINDOWS 32/64 bit (2.81G)* button on the top, I can
download the tar file with no problem.

If I click the "version 12.1" under the design tools tab, it fails to
download.

Hope this helps.

Dave

 

[Steven Hirsch]

On 07/16/2010 09:07 AM, Nicolas Matringe wrote:

On 15 juil, 10:08, Nicolas Matringe<nic_o_...@msn.com> wrote:
Hello
I've been trying to download these 2.9GB for 3 days with numerous
retries (thanks to the download manager, the 'resume' resulted in a
restart from 0) and when I finally managed to get the full file it was
corrupted.

I finally managed to get the full file in running order after another
6 hours download, now I'm installing it.

Love to know the secret. Just tried to download 12.2 and received this:



Message from the NSAPI plugin:

No backend server available for connection: timed out after 10 seconds or
idempotent set to OFF.


Build date/time: May 1 2006 12:12:04

Change Number: 755164

 

[Muzaffer Kal]

On Sun, 03 Oct 2010 13:37:34 -0400, Steven Hirsch <snhirsch@gmail.com>
wrote:

On 07/16/2010 09:07 AM, Nicolas Matringe wrote:
On 15 juil, 10:08, Nicolas Matringe<nic_o_...@msn.com> wrote:
Hello
I've been trying to download these 2.9GB for 3 days with numerous
retries (thanks to the download manager, the 'resume' resulted in a
restart from 0) and when I finally managed to get the full file it was
corrupted.

I finally managed to get the full file in running order after another
6 hours download, now I'm installing it.

Love to know the secret. Just tried to download 12.2 and received this:



Message from the NSAPI plugin:

No backend server available for connection: timed out after 10 seconds or
idempotent set to OFF.


Build date/time: May 1 2006 12:12:04

Change Number: 755164

There is an announcement on xilinx.com front-page which says parts of

the site would be unavailable from 6:00am to 3:00pm PST. That might be
your problem. Anyway, they are coming out with 12.3 on tuesday so it
might be a better idea to wait for that.
--
Muzaffer Kal

DSPIA INC.
ASIC/FPGA Design Services

http://www.dspia.com

 

[Leon]

I didn't even try to download it (I had enough problems downloading
the smaller Altera package) so I ordered it on a DVD. It took about
three weeks to arrive but installed without any problems.