Re: [oc] Xilinx, Altera or whatever...

[Richard Herveille <richard@asics.ws>]

> I'm a GNU/Linux user and, as I said, I'm working on reconfiguration
> systems (FPGA based on RAM).
> Xilinx offers the free ISE Web Pack, but it's for Microsoft platform

It will run on Linux using Wine.

> Altera offers the Quartus II Web Edition, but it's for Microsoft again

Altera's Quartus-II environment is available for Linux.

> I read that the Altera parts are focused on logical designs and in the
> other hand, Xilinx is for processing (DSP). What it's your opinion about
> this?.

Not true. Both companies are big competitors and when one is a step further 
than the other in one field, the other is quick to follow.

Both focus on general digital logic.
For DSP like applications Xilinx was the first with their Virtex-II chips (and 
derivatives) with 18x18 hardware multipliers. Altera has followed with their 
Stratix devices that incorporates 'DSP cores', hardware blocks that can 
perform DSP-like tasks.


> And finally, the speed of the reconfiguration process...are there big
> diferences between Altera and Xilinx parts?

If you compare generations of devices yes and no. Although the basics are the 
same for most devices, the actual structure can be quite different. So a 
particular design might run faster in an Altera, whereas another design runs 
faster in a Xilinx.

Richard

>
> Thanks for all the opinions.
> Peco

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