Xilinx and Nexys2 Tutorial
Kartik Mohanram
Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Rice University, Houston, TX
Verilog synthesis+simulation with Xilinx
Xilinx
Project
Navigator
Icon
on your
Desktop
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Open a new project called decoder2to4
Choose a working directory
(C:\...\decoder2to4) and name the
top level module there (decoder2to4)
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Device options, etc.
The next step is to select the target device and
its specs from the board (Spartan3E, xc3s500e, fg320);
to specify Verilog as the input HDL language
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Adding new Verilog source
Create a new top level module
decoder2to4 in the project
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Initialize project directory
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Enter the source
 Use bottom tabs
to
select the source file, key in the Verilog description, and
save it
Design constraints+actions:
synthesis+implementation,
bit-file generation, etc.
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2-to-4 decoder example
 Use case statement
 Note that output [3:0] y is
changed to output reg [3:0] y
 No Xilinx option to specify
this directly
 Hand-code as necessary
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User constraint file (UCF)
 UCF file for I/O mapping
 The UCF allows us to leverage
the switches, LEDs, etc. on
the board to interact with the
implemented design (see
documentation on 326 page
too)
 Add new source
 Mapping visible on board
 Sometime mis-marked
 Cross-check with manual
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UCF generation
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Add I/O constraints
 The mapping assigns switch 1 (available on pin G18) to
input W[0], etc. These mappings are visible on the
board and also part of the Nexys2 board
documentation.
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Compile!
 Select the decoder2to4 module and
double-click the “Synthesize – XST” button.
Note that Xilinx displays all allowed options
for the selected file in the project. For
example, selecting the io.ucf file does not
provide options like synthesis, etc. since it
really is not a Verilog module.
 Synthesis will take some time.
 If successful, you will see a green
check-mark
 Double-click “Generate Programming File”
to generate the bit-file
 You can expand the synthesis tab and look
at the synthesis report, warnings, critical
path delay, etc.
 Errors and warnings
 Heed them and you will learn as you go
 Ask labbies
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Adding SSD signal
 Add extra output ssd
 Pulls all seven-segment
display limbs up for the
decoder, so that you don’t
see a faint glow
 Same limbs will find use
in core of your SS module
 UCF entries are handy
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UCF for complete design
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Generate programming file
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Programming the FPGA
 Once the bit-stream is generated, we will configure the
FPGA using the boundary-scan port
 Boundary-scan and JTAG are features used for
post-production test of ICs using very simple shiftregister concepts and 4 I/O pins
 The parallel-port connector lists these as TDI, TDO,
TCLK, and TMS (test data in, …)
 Can be used to configure FPGAs using the Adept
software (icon below)
Programming the FPGA
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Programming the FPGA
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