wiki:GettingStarted/WARPv3/Tools

Recommended Tools for WARP v3

Summary of Recommended Tools:

Tool Name

Version

Link

Notes

OS

  • Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
  • Windows XP Professional (64-bit)

N/A

Notes

Xilinx ISE Design Suite

14.4 System Edition

Link

Notes

The Mathworks Matlab

  • 2011a
  • 2011b

Link

Notes

TortoiseSVN

(latest)

Link

Notes

PuTTY terminal emulator

(latest)

Link

Notes

Wireshark

(latest)

Link

Notes

WinDD

(latest)

Link

Notes

FTDI Drivers

(latest)

Link

Notes

Visual C++ Express

2010

Link

Notes

Windows SDK

7.1

Link

Notes

Notes

OS

We recommend Windows 7, 64-bit for all WARP development. That said, the Xilinx tools also support:

  • Red Hat Enterprise 5 Workstation
  • Red Hat Enterprise 4 Workstation
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise

So, these OS choices should also be okay. However, many of the other tools listed here rely on Windows, so appropriate replacements must be found.

Xilinx Tools

A full installation of the Xilinx tools (System Edition), fulfilling all Xilinx licensing requirements, is necessary for building custom FPGA designs (i.e. hardware). An SDK-only installation (with less stringent licensing requirements) is also available and can be used if the user only wants to update software designs. For example, this reduced installation would be appropriate for customizing the MAC behavior of our 802.11 Reference Design.

Matlab

Matlab is required for Xilinx System Generator and also for the WARPLab design flow.

TortoiseSVN

Any SVN client can be used, but we recommend TortoiseSVN if the user is using the Windows operating system. Instructions for downloading the WARP SVN repository are available here.

PuTTY

PuTTY is used to communicate with the WARP board via UART. Instructions for setting up PuTTY are here.

Wireshark

Wireshark is a network protocol analyzer. It will show you, at the Ethernet link level, the packets entering and leaving your PC. This can be very useful for debugging interactions between your computer and a WARP node.

WinDD

WinDD is a port of Unix's 'dd' command. This is used for writing SD cards with your hardware/software designs for running on WARP v3. This allows a WARP v3 node to load a design without downloading over JTAG (very useful for larger deployments). Details of this process are provided here.

FTDI Drivers

WARP v3 uses an FTDI usb chip to provide UART connectivity. These drivers create a virtual COM port on your computer that PuTTY can open. More details are available in the user guide and USB UART howto.

Visual C++ 2010 Express

The WARPLab design flow currently uses a user-compiled library for Matlab to speak to the boards using UDP. Visual C++ 2010 Express is required by Matlab to compile this library.

Windows SDK

The Windows SDK is also required for compiling Mex functions in Matlab.

Recommended Equipment for WARP

When using WARP, there are a couple of pieces of equipment that you may find useful to have in your lab space.

Computer

  • The Xilinx design tools can be very demanding. Depending on how complex the design is that you are building, Xilinx estimates RAM usage for building for the XC6VLX240T FPGA that is in WARP v3 to be typically 3.7GB and as much as 6.5GB (source). Further discussion of system requirements are available here on page 53.
  • It is very useful to have a computer that contains two Network Interface Cards (NICs). For example, you may want one Ethernet card to accessing your computer network or internet, and another card to communicating to the WARP boards over Ethernet.

Other Useful Accessories

  • Gigabit Ethernet Switch
  • Ethernet cables
  • Micro USB cables
Last modified 9 years ago Last modified on Sep 14, 2015, 12:27:25 PM