FPSLIC vs Xilinx

[Richo]

Hi All,

I'm looking to design and build a microcontroller & FPGA-based design
and am considering the FPSLIC as an option. However, I'm a bit
concerned about a few things that I've come across:

- There has been a few suggestions on discussion forums that the
FPSLIC is not long for this world as it hasn't been that popular - I
really like the idea of the FPSLIC, so would be dissapointed if this
was the case - anyone know how true this is?
- The development kit comes with a license for the system designer
software for the first 4 months, but I can't find anywhere that tells
me how much I'll be up for after that. Four months is fine for the
initial design, but what about ongoing maintenance?
- The cost of the chip from digikey seems very high. What's is the
indicative volume pricing of the 40k device? Single chip from digikey
is US$50 per chip.
- Anyone have experience with using GCC with the FPSLIC - I'm ok with
codevision or imagecraft, but I've found that GCC has more support with
C/C++ constructs in the past (just coding style preferences).

Btw, I've been developing my VHDL with xilinx ISE, but there seem to be
serious issues with the simulation engine. I keep getting the
"ERROR:Simulator:222 - Generated C++ compilation was unsuccessful".
This is making me reconsider the FPSLIC again.

Best Regards,

Glenn.

 

IMnsHO, the problem with the FPSLIC is the price. For less money you
can get a "normal" FPGA that can hold a soft core and have more gates
left over. And you get to pick your CPU.

IIRC, the FPSLIC software is in the $5K range.

Can you be more specific simulator problems?

GH

Richo wrote:

Hi All,

I'm looking to design and build a microcontroller & FPGA-based design
and am considering the FPSLIC as an option. However, I'm a bit
concerned about a few things that I've come across:

- There has been a few suggestions on discussion forums that the
FPSLIC is not long for this world as it hasn't been that popular - I
really like the idea of the FPSLIC, so would be dissapointed if this
was the case - anyone know how true this is?
- The development kit comes with a license for the system designer
software for the first 4 months, but I can't find anywhere that tells
me how much I'll be up for after that. Four months is fine for the
initial design, but what about ongoing maintenance?
- The cost of the chip from digikey seems very high. What's is the
indicative volume pricing of the 40k device? Single chip from digikey
is US$50 per chip.
- Anyone have experience with using GCC with the FPSLIC - I'm ok with
codevision or imagecraft, but I've found that GCC has more support with
C/C++ constructs in the past (just coding style preferences).

Btw, I've been developing my VHDL with xilinx ISE, but there seem to be
serious issues with the simulation engine. I keep getting the
"ERROR:Simulator:222 - Generated C++ compilation was unsuccessful".
This is making me reconsider the FPSLIC again.

Best Regards,

Glenn.