Professor wants me to ask...

[supersenior]

"Would you please do me a favor and go back on the forum and ask if book examples for the Nexys 2 board will equally work on the Nexys 3 board?  In other words, is the Nexys 3 upward compatible with the Nexys 2?
 

Tell them that you are interested in doing the 'Introduction to Digital Design Using Digilent FPGA Boards' by Richard Haskill and Darrin Hanna and the 
"Real Digital - a Hands on Approach to Digital Design”on the Diligent web site but, both state they are for the Nexys 2 board and you wanted to know if you could use the Nexys 3 for both."

 

Any input would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

[NAEastland]

Hey supersenior,

Using the Nexys 3 board in place of the Nexys 2 for the examples found in those books should not be an issue. Conceptually any of the examples or projects should be the same. The Spartan 6 chip found on the Nexys 3 can do anything the Spartan 3 from the older board can do, however the pins are all different. This change is something that will be reflected in the software though, so if there are any examples that detail specific pins of the Nexys 2, you will have to use the corresponding pins for the Nexys 3 instead. I have included an image below of the constraints file (UCF) for both to illustrate this difference, but its not something that would be a huge issue. Just make sure your source code is referencing the correct names in the UCF file of the board you are using (Nexys 3).

*Top is from Nexys3 UCF, Bottom is from Nexys2 UCF*

As far as the software goes, both are programmed through ISE, though versions later than the one used in the books may have elements of the UI that appear different or have been moved around. I am not 100% sure about that, but it is just something to keep in mind when using different versions of software. Any source code from examples should still run in newer versions without much issue, just keep in mind what i mentioned earlier about naming and the UCFs. Also I believe the newer version of Adept should be capable of programming the Nexys 3, so that should take care of you for programming the board.

So the short answer, yes, using the Nexys 3 should be fine. I hope this information is helpful.

- Nate