[yocto] any success with spartan6-lx9mb?

[Philip Balister]

On 09/06/2012 04:11 PM, Trevor Woerner wrote:
> Hi Elvis,
>
> Thanks so much for taking a look at my email! I've read through lots
> of this mailing list's history and noticed all your meta-xilinx work
> in the past and was hoping I could pique your interest :-)
>
> On Thu, Sep 6, 2012 at 11:19 AM, Elvis Dowson <elvis.dowson at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Can you please list which version of the Xilinx ISE tools you are using? e.g. 12.4, 14.1, 14.2 ?
>
> I have 14.2 installed on my Linux machine at home.
>
>> Could you also please list the Xilinx development board that you are using? e.g. SP601 (Spartan6) ?
>
> I have been (slowly) teaching myself VHDL and working with a Papilio
> board from Gadget Factory. Are you familiar with them? They have a
> Spartan 3E on them.
>
>      http://papilio.cc/
>
>> Let me know what you ISE development tool configuration and development
>> board is, and I'll see if I can divert a bit from target platform, and try to
>> explore getting the toolchain to build for the Microblaze processor.
>
> It is my understanding that Microblaze won't fit or work with the
> Spartan 3E (?). However, the guy who makes the Papilio board, Jack
> Gassett, is currently working on his latest board called the "Papilio
> Plus". The Plus is not yet out, although prototypes are available:
>
>      http://forum.gadgetfactory.net/index.php?/topic/1280-papilio-plus-prototypes-available-for-8499-in-the-store/
>
> The Plus will feature a Spartan 6 LX9, which, I believe, can support
> the Microblaze.
>
> In a comment on the All Programmable Planet blog about a month ago,
> Jack bemoans how easy it used to be to get Linux up and running on a
> Spartan 3E devel board using what has now become PetaLinux. The
> problem is that PetaLinux is now a commercial product and not readily
> available to the DIY market:
>
>      http://www.programmableplanet.com/messages.asp?piddl_msgthreadid=252509&piddl_msgid=717514#msg_717514
>
> When I noticed the meta-xilinx layer had support for the Spartan 6 LX9
> I was really hoping to surprise Jack by testing it out and providing
> instructions for creating a filesystem he could use as part of his
> work on the Plus. Unfortunately my attempts fell flat. I even tried
> using denzil-7.0.1 but encountered the same problems.
>
> Seeing how soft processors within programmable logic seems to be
> gaining in popularity, I thought it would be a great niche to get
> into. If the Yocto Project could be used to create images for the
> Microblaze or even the Picoblaze processors I think it would help fill
> a void which is quickly expanding. Also, if support could be added to
> meta-xilinx to support Jack's Papilio boards it would help introduce
> the DIY community to the Yocto Project.
>
>> I've got the following boards with me:
>> - Xilinx ML507 (Virtex 5 FX70T with PowerPC 440)
>> - Xilinx SP601 (Spartan 6)
>> - Xilinx Zynq (ARM Cortex A-9)
>
> Once I get more into the VHDL I'll probably end up getting a Zynq
> myself too; talk about combining the best of both worlds :-)

Speaking of zynq, I have a simple BSP here for the zc702 board:

https://github.com/balister/meta-zynq

Philip