Please help with Xilinx ISE Schematic question

[Bob]

I need help in creating constants to be used with schematic capture.

In previous versions of Xilinx ISE I used to create schematic symbols
for constants (i.e. 0xA5) by creating a schmetic with 8 buffers. The
inputs were connected to gnd or vcc to create the constant. The
outputs of the buffer were connected to a bus CONST(7:0).

Then I could use this constant anywhere in my schematic by inserting
this part.

I tried this on the latest ISE 6.1 and got the following error when I
compiled.

ERROR:Xst:1539 - C:/Projects/DemoTop.vhf line 122: Formal port in
component <const8_80> must be an identifier.

Here is the DemoTop.vhf output:

XLXI_30 : const8_80
port map (Const(7 downto 0)=>XLXN_12(7 downto 0));

Why doesn't this work anymore? Is there a better way to create a
constant. I know that Altera has a constant macro. Is there any easy
way in Xilinx.

Thanks,

Bob

P.S. Please post the answer in the newsgroup rather than emailing it.

 

[Marc Guardiani]

My guess would be it's an ECS (schematic editor) bug. I'd say 90% of the
bugs I've found are with ECS. One that I found in 6.1i was that if you
put the attribute "uselowskewlines" onto a net, synthesis chokes because
the vhf output file misspells the key word "SIGNAL" as "SIGANL".

Another way to create a constant that I use is to create a VHDL module
with an output port that I assign the constant to. I haven't tried this
in 6.1i yet though.

Bob wrote:

I need help in creating constants to be used with schematic capture.

In previous versions of Xilinx ISE I used to create schematic symbols
for constants (i.e. 0xA5) by creating a schmetic with 8 buffers. The
inputs were connected to gnd or vcc to create the constant. The
outputs of the buffer were connected to a bus CONST(7:0).

Then I could use this constant anywhere in my schematic by inserting
this part.

I tried this on the latest ISE 6.1 and got the following error when I
compiled.

ERROR:Xst:1539 - C:/Projects/DemoTop.vhf line 122: Formal port in
component <const8_80> must be an identifier.

Here is the DemoTop.vhf output:

XLXI_30 : const8_80
port map (Const(7 downto 0)=>XLXN_12(7 downto 0));

Why doesn't this work anymore? Is there a better way to create a
constant. I know that Altera has a constant macro. Is there any easy
way in Xilinx.

Thanks,

Bob

P.S. Please post the answer in the newsgroup rather than emailing it.

 

[Antti Lukats]

google.4.oracle@xoxy.net (Bob) wrote in message news:<aacb3d3a.0401150932.5aaafb26@posting.google.com>...

I need help in creating constants to be used with schematic capture.

ERROR:Xst:1539 - C:/Projects/DemoTop.vhf line 122: Formal port in
component <const8_80> must be an identifier.

you found a funny bug, the same problems appears even if you write the
constant in VHDL file and instantiate that in ECS toplevel.
the problem doesnt happen if you use verilog as simulation language for
your project. So not sure if the problem is in ECS or XST. but its
a pretty serious problem-bug in the tools.

http://xilinx.openchip.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8

Antti

 

[Jim Lewis]

VHDL-87 did not allow constants to be connected to ports.

VHDL-93 does.

Is there a switch that turns VHDL-93 on?

To be compliant with the newest VHDL RTL synthesis
standard IEEE P1076.6-2003, Xilinx needs to support
this.

If they don't, the work around is to create a signal,
and assign it a value (in the concurrent part of
code since often initializations of signals are not
supported by synthesis).

signal sig_XLXN_12 : std_logic_vector(7 downto 0) ;

.. . .

sig_XLXN_12 <= XLXN_12(7 downto 0) ;


Of course, rereading your post, it is curious why the
creatino of buffers in your schematic did not do the
above.

good luck.

Cheers,
Jim


Bob wrote:

I need help in creating constants to be used with schematic capture.

In previous versions of Xilinx ISE I used to create schematic symbols
for constants (i.e. 0xA5) by creating a schmetic with 8 buffers. The
inputs were connected to gnd or vcc to create the constant. The
outputs of the buffer were connected to a bus CONST(7:0).

Then I could use this constant anywhere in my schematic by inserting
this part.

I tried this on the latest ISE 6.1 and got the following error when I
compiled.

ERROR:Xst:1539 - C:/Projects/DemoTop.vhf line 122: Formal port in
component <const8_80> must be an identifier.

Here is the DemoTop.vhf output:

XLXI_30 : const8_80
port map (Const(7 downto 0)=>XLXN_12(7 downto 0));

Why doesn't this work anymore? Is there a better way to create a
constant. I know that Altera has a constant macro. Is there any easy
way in Xilinx.

Thanks,

Bob

P.S. Please post the answer in the newsgroup rather than emailing it.

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jim Lewis
Director of Training mailto:Jim@SynthWorks.com
SynthWorks Design Inc. http://www.SynthWorks.com
1-503-590-4787

Expert VHDL Training for Hardware Design and Verification
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