April 27, 2022

FPGA - Spartan 3E board - ISE software

Test fly ISE

I just finished the install.
I know the cable drivers are an unsolved problem.
But, I just want to see how far I get following the example in the above guide.

I type "ise" as user "tom" and create a new project. It lets me pick the Digilent Spartan 3E starter as an evaluation board on the next screen!! As per the example in the Ubuntu guide, I then select XST, Isim, and Verilog. Then Next and Finish.

Now I find the "new source" button on the far left, select "verilog module" and name it "test". I create a single bit input and single bit output (i_sw and o_led). I add one line to the code template, as follows:

assign o_led = i_sw;
I double click on "Synthesize - XST" and away it goes, apparently finishing in a happy way.

Now I select User Constraints, click on the "+" note to expand that part of the diagram, then double click on IO pin planning, post sythesis. It wants a UCF file and offers to make one, I say OK. The Ubuntu guide says to get the pin numbers from the board.

Indeed, next to switches and LED, there are pin names/numbers. Who would have guessed?!

SW0 is L13
LD0 is F12
So, a dialog has opened offering to teach me all about planahead. Perhaps unwisely, I shut it down and explore the GUI which then becomes active. It has a lovely color image of the device package, from which I can select pins. And it has my two IO ports below, but it is not clear how to make the connections between pins and ports, which is of course what I would like to do.

The key phrase is "apply in the site column". Indeed there is a site column for each IO port, and when I click in it, I get a menu and can select L13 and F12 as appropriate. Cool. Once this is done, I click File -- Save constraints.

Back on the main GUI, I double click on "Implement Design", it is busy for a while, but when done a green "ok" check mark appears. (There is already one on "Synthesize XST".) I double click on "generate programming file", and am rewarded with another green check mark.

Now we double click on "Configure Target device", agree to the warning popup that comes along, and end up in a "ISE IMPACT" gui.

Now it wants a cable. And I am also going to need a power supply. I find one of the ancient USB cables with the big square ends. The power supply I got with my unit is a 5 volt, 4 amp brick with a european two prong AC power plug on it. I now have the choice of connecting a 5 volt 4 amp supply to a proper barrel connector, or doing something about the AC connection on this one. Probably a good place to end the night.

I use File -- Save Project. It saves to /home/tom/ise_zzz I save zzz.ipf for the Impact file Who knows if it is all saved, but it will be good practice to do it all again if needed.


Feedback? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's Computer Info / tom@mmto.org