ASMBL

[Shiraz Kaleel]

While waiting for the next announcement....
perhaps some Xilinx person could answer these questions?

Crista Souza's and Ron Wilson's piece in EETimes says in
the final paragraph:

The column-based approach means that IP companies
that either license to Xilinx or want to be acquired will
**now have precise physical constraints for how to incorporate
their IP into Xilinx FPGAs**. Initially, that will whittle down
the field of qualified vendors, but ultimately it will result
in higher-quality IP, analysts said.

Whom should one contact to find out more about these precise
physical constraints?

Will it require the IP companies to work with expensive ASIC
design and verification software, or will there be some new
software which has the parameters which the designers can use
already set up for the base platform and taking into account these
constraints?

Thanks

Shiraz.

 

[Austin Lesea]

Shiraz,

Idle speculation on the part of over-anxious authors?

Austin

Shiraz Kaleel wrote:

While waiting for the next announcement....
perhaps some Xilinx person could answer these questions?

Crista Souza's and Ron Wilson's piece in EETimes says in
the final paragraph:

The column-based approach means that IP companies
that either license to Xilinx or want to be acquired will
**now have precise physical constraints for how to incorporate
their IP into Xilinx FPGAs**. Initially, that will whittle down
the field of qualified vendors, but ultimately it will result
in higher-quality IP, analysts said.

Whom should one contact to find out more about these precise
physical constraints?

Will it require the IP companies to work with expensive ASIC
design and verification software, or will there be some new
software which has the parameters which the designers can use
already set up for the base platform and taking into account these
constraints?

Thanks

Shiraz.

 

[Jim Granville]

Austin Lesea wrote:

Shiraz,

Idle speculation on the part of over-anxious authors?

Austin

I'm left puzzled as to why they should be anxious ?
Maybe over-excited, or over-hyped, but anxious ?!

The cited reason for the ASMBL early info release is
to 'create interest'.

Well, Ok, it's done that......

Now, imagine this :

Interest generates questions, and when those questions are given
a 'wait and see' reply, that interest changes to annoyance and
frustration, and the market droids 'clever idea' morphs into
one needing damage control...

Still, those looking for hard info on future FPGA
directions could, of course, pop over to
http://www.altera.com/products/devices/stratix2/st2-index.jsp

-jg

 

[Austin Lesea]

Jim,

anxious -

"1. Uneasy and apprehensive about an uncertain event or matter; worried.
2. Attended with, showing, or causing anxiety: spent an anxious
night waiting for the test results.
3. Usage Problem. Eagerly or earnestly desirous.


[From Latin nxius, from angere, to torment. See angh- in Indo-European
Roots.]anxiousˇly adv.
anxiousˇness n.

Usage Note: Anxious has a long history of use roughly as a synonym
for eager, but many prefer that anxious be used only when its subject is
worried or uneasy about the anticipated event. In the traditional view,
one may say We are anxious to see the strike settled soon but not We are
anxious to see the new show of British sculpture at the museum.
Fifty-two percent of the Usage Panel rejects anxious in the latter
sentence. But general adoption of anxious to mean “eager” is
understandable, at least in colloquial discourse, since it provides a
means of adding emotional urgency to an assertion. It implies that the
subject so strongly desires a certain outcome that frustration of that
desire will lead to unhappiness. In this way, it resembles the informal
adjective dying in sentences such as I'm dying to see your new baby."

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=anxious

Austin

 

[Jim Granville]

Oops, I missed one - in addition to
http://www.altera.com/products/devices/stratix2/st2-index.jsp

more FPGA direction indicators are also here :-

http://www.leopardlogic.com/news/index.php

As to anxious, anxiety, or over-anxious etc, perhaps the
subject "ASMBL anxiety" says it all...

-jg

Austin Lesea wrote:

Jim,

anxious -

"1. Uneasy and apprehensive about an uncertain event or matter; worried.
2. Attended with, showing, or causing anxiety: spent an anxious night
waiting for the test results.
3. Usage Problem. Eagerly or earnestly desirous.


[From Latin nxius, from angere, to torment. See angh- in Indo-European
Roots.]anxiousˇly adv.
anxiousˇness n.

Usage Note: Anxious has a long history of use roughly as a synonym
for eager, but many prefer that anxious be used only when its subject is
worried or uneasy about the anticipated event. In the traditional view,
one may say We are anxious to see the strike settled soon but not We are
anxious to see the new show of British sculpture at the museum.
Fifty-two percent of the Usage Panel rejects anxious in the latter
sentence. But general adoption of anxious to mean “eager” is
understandable, at least in colloquial discourse, since it provides a
means of adding emotional urgency to an assertion. It implies that the
subject so strongly desires a certain outcome that frustration of that
desire will lead to unhappiness. In this way, it resembles the informal
adjective dying in sentences such as I'm dying to see your new baby."

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=anxious

Austin

 

[Austin Lesea]

Jim,

*

*.......I have been admonished for commenting on competitors in this
forum. That will have to be left up to others like yourself.

A careful review of all of the features of St2 will have to be left to
others.

Perhaps Ray Andraka can comment on their new ALM architecture?
Advantages, disadvantages?

Austin

Jim Granville wrote:

Oops, I missed one - in addition to
http://www.altera.com/products/devices/stratix2/st2-index.jsp

more FPGA direction indicators are also here :-

http://www.leopardlogic.com/news/index.php

As to anxious, anxiety, or over-anxious etc, perhaps the
subject "ASMBL anxiety" says it all...

-jg

Austin Lesea wrote:

Jim,

anxious -

"1. Uneasy and apprehensive about an uncertain event or matter;
worried.
2. Attended with, showing, or causing anxiety: spent an anxious
night waiting for the test results.
3. Usage Problem. Eagerly or earnestly desirous.


[From Latin nxius, from angere, to torment. See angh- in Indo-European
Roots.]anxiousˇly adv.
anxiousˇness n.

Usage Note: Anxious has a long history of use roughly as a synonym
for eager, but many prefer that anxious be used only when its subject
is worried or uneasy about the anticipated event. In the traditional
view, one may say We are anxious to see the strike settled soon but
not We are anxious to see the new show of British sculpture at the
museum. Fifty-two percent of the Usage Panel rejects anxious in the
latter sentence. But general adoption of anxious to mean “eager” is
understandable, at least in colloquial discourse, since it provides a
means of adding emotional urgency to an assertion. It implies that the
subject so strongly desires a certain outcome that frustration of that
desire will lead to unhappiness. In this way, it resembles the
informal adjective dying in sentences such as I'm dying to see your
new baby."

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=anxious

Austin

 

[Jim Granville]

Austin Lesea wrote:

Jim,

*

*.......I have been admonished for commenting on competitors in this
forum. That will have to be left up to others like yourself.

A careful review of all of the features of St2 will have to be left to
others.

Perhaps Ray Andraka can comment on their new ALM architecture?
Advantages, disadvantages?

One thing that was not obvious in a quick trawl thru their info,
was the relative NIOS sizes (Stratix / Stratix II).
You'd think that would make a good benchmark, but maybe it's still a
'work in progress' as they tune the SW.

Anyone seen actual numbers or NIOS or NIOS II ?

-jg

 

[Ray Andraka]

Sorry, I haven't looked much at NIOS since it was first introduced (and even
then it wasn't a down and dirty look).

Jim Granville wrote:

Austin Lesea wrote:
Jim,

*

*.......I have been admonished for commenting on competitors in this
forum. That will have to be left up to others like yourself.

A careful review of all of the features of St2 will have to be left to
others.

Perhaps Ray Andraka can comment on their new ALM architecture?
Advantages, disadvantages?

One thing that was not obvious in a quick trawl thru their info,
was the relative NIOS sizes (Stratix / Stratix II).
You'd think that would make a good benchmark, but maybe it's still a
'work in progress' as they tune the SW.

Anyone seen actual numbers or NIOS or NIOS II ?

-jg

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

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

 

[Fredrik]

Hi Jim
Jim Granville <no.spam@designtools.co.nz> wrote in message news:<14XTb.20607$ws.2742532@news02.tsnz.net>...

snip.
Anyone seen actual numbers or NIOS or NIOS II ?

-jg
I did a quick compile in Quartus2_ver4 with Stratix2 and Stratix same

Nios design only changed parts. Results in ALUT's compared to LE's is
3202 ALUT (S2) and 4522LE's (S). Push button compile of design no
tweaking no logiclock.
Cheers
Fredrik

 

[Peter Sommerfeld]

Hi Fredrik,

Are these numbers for a 32-bit Nios with hardware multiply?

-- Pete

fredrik_he_lang@hotmail.com (Fredrik) wrote in message news:<77a94d51.0402040058.38e476c9@posting.google.com>...

Hi Jim
Jim Granville <no.spam@designtools.co.nz> wrote in message news:<14XTb.20607$ws.2742532@news02.tsnz.net>...
snip.
Anyone seen actual numbers or NIOS or NIOS II ?

-jg
I did a quick compile in Quartus2_ver4 with Stratix2 and Stratix same
Nios design only changed parts. Results in ALUT's compared to LE's is
3202 ALUT (S2) and 4522LE's (S). Push button compile of design no
tweaking no logiclock.
Cheers
Fredrik

 

[Fredrik]

Hi Pete,

petersommerfeld@hotmail.com (Peter Sommerfeld) wrote in message news:<5c4d983.0402041113.563100e4@posting.google.com>...

Hi Fredrik,

Are these numbers for a 32-bit Nios with hardware multiply?

-- Pete

No hardware multiply (used MSTEP), but 32-bit Nios. Design used was
one I used on some Nios traning with DMA and a CRC custom istruction
in it. Also some other goodies for trying out the various features of
the Nios Stratix board.
Cheers
Fredrik

fredrik_he_lang@hotmail.com (Fredrik) wrote in message news:<77a94d51.0402040058.38e476c9@posting.google.com>...
Hi Jim
Jim Granville <no.spam@designtools.co.nz> wrote in message news:<14XTb.20607$ws.2742532@news02.tsnz.net>...
snip.
Anyone seen actual numbers or NIOS or NIOS II ?

-jg
I did a quick compile in Quartus2_ver4 with Stratix2 and Stratix same
Nios design only changed parts. Results in ALUT's compared to LE's is
3202 ALUT (S2) and 4522LE's (S). Push button compile of design no
tweaking no logiclock.
Cheers
Fredrik

 

[Jesse Kempa]

Jim Granville <no.spam@designtools.co.nz> wrote in message news:<14XTb.20607$ws.2742532@news02.tsnz.net>...

One thing that was not obvious in a quick trawl thru their info,
was the relative NIOS sizes (Stratix / Stratix II).
You'd think that would make a good benchmark, but maybe it's still a
'work in progress' as they tune the SW.

Anyone seen actual numbers or NIOS or NIOS II ?

-jg

Jim,

Nios v3.2 is the final release of "classic" Nios. It is slated to be
released very soon, and will offer a couple of tweaks for Stratix II
support. For another data point: I ran the "minimal_32" example
through QII 4.0 for both device families and got 2011LEs (Stratix) vs.
1393ALUTs (Stratix II).

Again, Nios 3.2 will officially support Stratix II.

As for Nios II... I cannot comment on that yet, but stay tuned, its
worth waiting for.

Jesse Kempa
Altera Corp.
jkempa at altera dot com

 

[Jim Granville]

Jesse Kempa wrote:

Jim Granville <no.spam@designtools.co.nz> wrote in message news:<14XTb.20607$ws.2742532@news02.tsnz.net>...

One thing that was not obvious in a quick trawl thru their info,
was the relative NIOS sizes (Stratix / Stratix II).
You'd think that would make a good benchmark, but maybe it's still a
'work in progress' as they tune the SW.

Anyone seen actual numbers or NIOS or NIOS II ?

-jg


Jim,

Nios v3.2 is the final release of "classic" Nios. It is slated to be
released very soon, and will offer a couple of tweaks for Stratix II
support. For another data point: I ran the "minimal_32" example
through QII 4.0 for both device families and got 2011LEs (Stratix) vs.
1393ALUTs (Stratix II).

Again, Nios 3.2 will officially support Stratix II.

As for Nios II... I cannot comment on that yet, but stay tuned, its
worth waiting for.

Jesse,
Thanks for that. We would expect NIOS II to be more 'tuned'
for Stratix II...

Here's a question, (for when you can comment
Will NIOS II have a variant that fits/runs on MAX II devices ?

-jg

 

[Jesse Kempa]

Jesse,
Thanks for that. We would expect NIOS II to be more 'tuned'
for Stratix II...

Here's a question, (for when you can comment
Will NIOS II have a variant that fits/runs on MAX II devices ?

-jg

Hi Jim,

I'd love to address that right now but can't -- stay tuned for the MAX
II & Nios II launches. They will answer that question.

- Jesse