Vivado Lab Edition with Simulated Target

[ravij18]

Hello,

I am completely new to realization of digital circuits part, please excuse me if I sound too silly.

[1.] I am planning to learn Vivado IDE. Right now, we don't have any hardware, though we have zeroed in one of the Ultrascale variant for our product.

[2.] I downloaded and tried using Vivado Lab Edition (with Simulated Target), but no luck. In the very step it is insisting on opening Hardware Target. Is there any workaround for this so that I can work on simulated models rather than actual hardware targets? Please advise.

[3.] I  primarily went to Vivado Lab Edition for its small footprint. What are the alternatives for using simulated target? which variant of Vivado would be suitable? Please advise.

Thanks,

RaviJ18.

[bruce_karaffa · Accepted solution]

Lab edition is meant to connect to hardware so that you can download a configuration to an FPGA or to open up any debug embedded in the FPGA.  Lab edition is not meant to develop FPGA designs.  You should download a full copy of Vivado.  Check to see if the part you want to use requires a license, if a license is supplied with the development board you choose or if you can use the free Web Pack.

[u4223374]

Lab Edition has a small footprint because it has very limited functionality. All it can do is copy a bitstream to an FPGA or attached flash. It can't be used to develop code for an FPGA. As a result, there would be no point in supporting simulation - why would you want to simulate programming a chip? It'd just be a progress bar that fills up to show it's working.

To get started in designing for the FPGA, you need Vivado WebPack (which is free, but much larger). This has a fully-functional simulator and all the tools needed to build code.

Edit: not sure where you got "simulated target" from for Lab Edition. Are you referring to the Xilinx Virtual Cable? That's a completely different thing - basically JTAG-over-TCP/IP that allows the tool to act like it's got a JTAG cable connected even though it's actually connected through a much less direct method.