Vivado free for Artix-7?

[TerryS]

I just purchased a CMOD A7 (through Digikey), believing that the tools needed were available free (Vivado).  But the Digilent tutorial pages for installing Vivado all say "Legacy" and the Xilinx site says Vivado free only supports Spartan 6.  Is there a free version of Vivado that I can use with the CMOD A7?

Terry

[xc6lx45]

Hi,

don't worry. Vivado Web edition is free and includes everything I need. Look out for "Vivado web edition download". You will need to register with Xilinx, it's free but an export-controlled product.

If you download existing projects e.g. tutorials, you may need the correct (older) version. Otherwise, the latest version is probably the best choice.

[TerryS]

5 hours ago, xc6lx45 said:

Hi,

don't worry. Vivado Web edition is free and includes everything I need. Look out for "Vivado web edition download". You will need to register with Xilinx, it's free but an export-controlled product.

If you download existing projects e.g. tutorials, you may need the correct (older) version. Otherwise, the latest version is probably the best choice.

Thanks.  I'm downloading the latest Vivado Web edition now.  It is taking quite a long time (several hours at least).  It wasn't clear to me what "Legacy" meant in this context.  It looked like it was no longer relevant, but I couldn't find what should supersede it.  Looking forward to getting started with the CMOD.  Thanks again.

Terry

[jpeyron]

Hi @TerryS,

Welcome to the Digilent Forums!

Please attach the link to the legacy tutorials. The "legacy" term relates to older potentially inaccurate material.

Here is the resource center for the Cmod A7 with current material.

best regards,

Jon

[TerryS]

54 minutes ago, jpeyron said:

Hi @TerryS,

Welcome to the Digilent Forums!

Please attach the link to the legacy tutorials. The "legacy" term relates to older potentially inaccurate material.

Here is the resource center for the Cmod A7 with current material.

best regards,

Jon

Thanks for the welcome.

Here is where I went to try to install Vivado:

https://reference.digilentinc.com/learn/software/tutorials/vivado-install-guide/start

 

I got there from the Cmod A7 Programming Guide page:

https://reference.digilentinc.com/learn/programmable-logic/tutorials/cmod-a7-programming-guide/start

then the "Getting started with Vivado " link:

https://reference.digilentinc.com/vivado/getting_started/start

Then the "Installing Vivado" link.

 

[jpeyron]

Hi @TerryS,

Thank you for posting how you got to the legacy content. I will pass this on to our content team. We will still have this content accessible since there are a wide array of people that use different versions of vivado. The legacy content is accurate for earlier versions of Vivado/SDK.

best regards,

Jon

[xc6lx45]

Just as a reality check: To e.g. make a LED blink, the required CMOD A7-specific content is about five lines of constraints from CMODA7_Master.xdc. This may look more complicated than it actually is. And BTW, good choice, it's a great little board ?

[TerryS]

Thanks for the encouragement.  I'm anxious to get started, but the download of Vivado from Xilinx is incredibly slow.  Been trying for two days now.  It downloads at a max of about 1Mbps, but often as slow as 64kbps.  Just about back to dial up speeds!  

[JColvin]

Hi @TerryS,

Unfortunately, the download speeds you are reporting are due to your end (either your internet connection or your computer hardware), not Xilinx's end. Note also as a fair warning (since I believe this is your first time using Vivado) that even simple projects, such as LED blinking project that xc6lx45, will probably take more time than you expect as the Vivado software needs to program and set every transistor inside the FPGA. There is a nice comment summarizing what all the tools need to during synthesis, implementation, and bitstream generation here.

But as @xc6lx45, a lot of the material looks more complicated than it actually is, mostly because it's a different language.

Thanks,
JColvin

[TerryS]

2 hours ago, JColvin said:

Hi @TerryS,

Unfortunately, the download speeds you are reporting are due to your end (either your internet connection or your computer hardware), not Xilinx's end. Note also as a fair warning (since I believe this is your first time using Vivado) that even simple projects, such as LED blinking project that xc6lx45, will probably take more time than you expect as the Vivado software needs to program and set every transistor inside the FPGA. There is a nice comment summarizing what all the tools need to during synthesis, implementation, and bitstream generation here.

But as @xc6lx45, a lot of the material looks more complicated than it actually is, mostly because it's a different language.

Thanks,
JColvin

Yep, my bad.  I finally realized the download tool was reporting the rate in MBps (not mbps).  So what I thought was only 1Mbps was really at least 8 times faster than that, which is about the limit of my rural internet service.

The download is a whopping 18GB, which is going to take a while.  Unfortunately, it kept stopping occasionally and reporting a file didn't download, and waiting for me to confirm and try again.  So I couldn't just start the download and walk away.  Anyway, I'm getting close.

Thanks for the heads up on what to expect.  It has been almost 20 years since I last did any FPGA work.

Terry

[TerryS]

Thanks for all the help.  I was able to finish the Vivado install and get through the 'blinky' tutorial.  Very nice documentation.  It didn't exactly match the 2018.3 version of Vivado that I installed, but close enough to have me blinking an LED in no time at all.

Terry

[jpeyron]

Hi @TerryS,

Glad to hear you were able to get Vivado downloaded , installed and get through the "blinky" tutorial!  Thank you for sharing what you had to do to get this done.

best regards,

Jon