Digilent Genesys 2 -Vivado license: what does "board locked" mean

[Peter_B]

Hi,

 

Could anyone share their experience with Genesys 2 and Vivado voucher license?

The  Genesys 2 Vivado license (acquired via voucher) is node and board locked.

 

I wonder how restrictive board lock is:

Can I generate the bitstream on one computer (the "node" license is locked to) and program on another?

Does the the board need to be connected to the "node" for Viviado to work? (or the lock is just put in the bitstream?)

If I have two Genesys 2 boards, do I have to have two copies of Vivado installed?

 

Thanks,

Peter

 

 

 

[zygot]

The voucher is necessary because the free version of the Vivado tools do not support the FPGA device on the Genesys2. What the voucher does is to let you install the full Vivado tools onto one computer that is node locked to a particular Ethernet MAC address or hard disk serial number and device locked to one particular FPGA device (plus all of the devices supported by the free version of Vivado). You will be able to create a bitstream for the Genesys2 only on the computer with the license feature. If you have 2 boards each with a device locked licenses you can install node/device locked Vivado on 2 computers. FPGA boards can be configured from any computer regardless of licenses. By "node locked" FPGA vendors are referring to a license tied to one computer rather than tied to a remote license server. The device locking license just allows your to buy an FPGA board that is not supported by the free version of the tools and use it with the non-free version of Vivado. Note that you do NOT want to install the free version of Vivado if you have a license voucher as there are a lot of other features that you get with the paid version.... it is just restricted to work with the one device ( this includes packaging ). The bitstream is oblivious to licenses so you can configure your board from any computer. Altera allows you to evaluate certain IP for a limited time or as long as the board is connected to a computer running Quartus. Xilinx is a lot more friendly in this regard. Note that the Genesys2 and KC705 boards have the same Kintex device and you can do development for either board with a license feature supplied with either board. I own both and can develop for both on 2 different computers simultansously as the licenses are installed on 2 Vivado installations. You can update Vivado for 1 year with your license. The license feature that comes with the voucher is not board locked in any way... just device locked in terms of what Vivado will support. The hardware is not restricted... just the development flow that ends with a bitstream.

The downside is that after many years of using device locked licenses I have to keep quite a few computers and lots of versions of ISE/Vivado installed to support all of the boards. On the other hand I don't have pockets deep enough to buy annual licences for subscription version of FPGA vendor tools.

[Peter_B]

Thank you for clarification!

I guess I was influenced by earlier post (below) on related issue and that made me wonder about some elaborate individual board/device lock schemes .. not that far fetched thought given DRM/DLC/microtransactions world we live in (not giving Xilinx any ideas here :-))

 

 

[zygot]

Don't feel silly. The licensing is confusing, the documentation is inadequate ( I'm in  a very generous mood this morning ) and tools are more complicated than necessary. That is an opinion of someone who's been doing FPGA development for over 20 years. The issues are across all vendors.