Xilinx FPGA Editor - can one see the switch box detail?

[Barry Brown]

Today I was playing with the Xilinx FPGA Editor tool, trying to learn a
little about manual P&R, in case I someday need that skill. I've had some
luck, but it seems that what I need to know (when I'm selecting wires for a
manual route) is which pins on a switch box can be connected. Do you just
have to guess, or can that info be displayed somehow? Or maybe there is
some pattern to the switch box innards that I don't understand?

Also, the Help file is a bit terse. Are there tutorials, app notes,
resources for self-study on operating this tool?

Thanks,
Barry Brown

 

[Eric Crabill]

If you actually click on the "circle" where the route terminates
at the switchbox, it will show you what connections are posssible.

The lines in yellow indicate forward signal paths (i.e. places
you can go from where you clicked). The lines in olive green
indicate the opposite (i.e. places from which you could arrive
at the point you clicked).

Hope that helps,
Eric

Barry Brown wrote:

Today I was playing with the Xilinx FPGA Editor tool, trying to learn a
little about manual P&R, in case I someday need that skill. I've had some
luck, but it seems that what I need to know (when I'm selecting wires for a
manual route) is which pins on a switch box can be connected. Do you just
have to guess, or can that info be displayed somehow? Or maybe there is
some pattern to the switch box innards that I don't understand?

Also, the Help file is a bit terse. Are there tutorials, app notes,
resources for self-study on operating this tool?

Thanks,
Barry Brown

 

[John Williams]

Barry Brown wrote:

Today I was playing with the Xilinx FPGA Editor tool, trying to learn a
little about manual P&R, in case I someday need that skill. I've had some
luck, but it seems that what I need to know (when I'm selecting wires for a
manual route) is which pins on a switch box can be connected. Do you just
have to guess, or can that info be displayed somehow? Or maybe there is
some pattern to the switch box innards that I don't understand?

The switch box detail can be displayed - it's one of the icons in the
toolbar. If you zoom in close enough, then click on one of the ports of
the switch box (the little diamonds around the edge), it will show the
internal connections from that port.

They aren't all displayed simultaneously, since they are so massively
connected it would be a completely unintelligible mess. Even just
showing one source port at a time, it's pretty hard to follow.

Regards,

John

 

[Bret Wade]

"Barry Brown" <barry_brown@remove_this.agilent.com> wrote in message news:<1076629663.122091@cswreg.cos.agilent.com>...

Today I was playing with the Xilinx FPGA Editor tool, trying to learn a
little about manual P&R, in case I someday need that skill. I've had some
luck, but it seems that what I need to know (when I'm selecting wires for a
manual route) is which pins on a switch box can be connected. Do you just
have to guess, or can that info be displayed somehow? Or maybe there is
some pattern to the switch box innards that I don't understand?

Also, the Help file is a bit terse. Are there tutorials, app notes,
resources for self-study on operating this tool?

Thanks,
Barry Brown

Hi Barry,

If you select a pin on a switch box (point and click)FPGA Editor will
display all of the possible switch box paths to/from that pin. The
editor is well documented, but there is a lot more functionality than
meets the eye, so ask away.

Regards,
Bret