Re: Xilinx legacy situation

"Tim Forcer" wrote
<snip many valid points>
> If we can teach _currently relevant_ techniques of FPGA design
> with ten-year-old kit (and the FPGA experimenter kits are only 3
> years old), why should we have to throw the baby out with the
> bathwater?  If the DESIGN software still supports XC4000E, why
> has the downloader stopped supporting a download cable which was
> still being sold only a couple of years ago?  If the library
> files are still there, why can't the software be set up to
> access them?  (After all, the guts of the software isn't the
> Windows front end with the selection boxes - or have I
> misunderstood all those command lines scrolling through, which
> appear to show someone using 10-year-old DOS to do the hard work
> rather than shiny state-of-the-art Windows?)

I think this reply clarified the cable issue ?
<paste>
"Neil Glenn Jacobson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote
> Tim,
>
> iMPACT (all versions, full or WebPACK install) has supported and does
> support download via Parallel Cable III (in fact, I have one on my desk
> and it works just fine) as well as configuration of legacy devices.
>
> Note that new design bitstreams can only be generated with the ISE
> Classics Software.
>

> > devices. Sooner or later you will curse the
> > @#^%$*!  5-V standard.
>
> 5V has lasted longer than any other.  All subsequent standards
> have been superseded - today's standard will be unusable by the
> state-of-the-art ICs in three years.

 True, and 5V will still be around for a long time - Motorola, Lattice,
Atmel
have released 5V IO's on shrink devices.
 There are signs of 5V becomming an Automotive IO standard,
for reasons very similar to Tim's LABs interconnection...

 FPGAs are a bit of a special case - they rush ahead on process, in order
to get the density and speed up, and some details get left behind.

 Still, there are signs of awareness - a Xilinx survey this week asked if
'5V IO was important in your design'.  :)

> > Why not do it now!
>
> Because we teach a LOT more than just FPGA.  Believe me, we look
> at the voltage issue every year.  So far, we've had insufficient
> cause to decide that we'll throw out and re-cast the 21
> exercises per student occupying 32 lab sessions over two years
> of the course which use 5V circuitry.

PowerMOSETS are another good argument for 5V drive ability....

-jg