Clarification on the Genesys2 Vivado licence

[Terlisimo]

Hello,

 

Could you please elaborate on this:

"... for a limited time a voucher with Design Edition will be included with no additional cost."

 

Is this licence time limited in any way, I.E. will I have to purchase a DE licence at some point in the future or will I be able to use the current version with this board forever?

Is the voucher valid for a full licence or just a discount?

 

Another question, if I purchase a Digilent board through a 3rd party reseller like Mouser electronics, do I still get the voucher?

Thanks!

 

regards,
Vedran

 

[JColvin]

Hi @Terlisimo,

The way Xilinx has set up their Design Edition vouchers is as follows:

Once you activate the Design Edition voucher on the Xilinx website, you will have one year to download any version of the Vivado Design Edition from Xilinx without any additional cost to you, including new ones as they are released. After that year has concluded, you will no longer be able to download and activate new versions of the Vivado Design Edition, though you will be able to use the version you have installed on you machine without any loss of functionality.

If you want to download and activate (you can always download but not activate) newer versions of the Vivado Design Edition, you will need to either purchase a license from Xilinx or a new Genesys 2 board.

I do not know if this voucher is included with boards purchased from a distributor. I would presume this is the case, but I would recommend reaching out to the distributor directly to find out for certain.

The other thing I will note is that Xilinx is the end authority on what the vouchers can and cannot do as they control the licensing and associated software.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this.

Thanks,
JColvin

[tuskiomi]

Just to confirm, Does this include the licences outlined in red (which normally are free for 30 days, then require a one-time payment of 2,995$ to xilinx), or are they to be purchased separately?

 

[JColvin]

Hi @tuskiomi,

To be honest I do not know that answer; I only use the free WebPACK version of Vivado and those of us at Digilent who do use the Design Edition do not use a voucher to enable it. I would recommend reaching out to Xilinx (as opposed to the Digilent Sales team, since they will end up reaching out to me again to find out the answer) to get clarification on how their voucher is setup.

When I asked about how the vouchers worked a number of years ago by somebody who was familiar with them (they left a couple of years ago), I was informed that users would be able to continue to use their product without loss of functionality, but seeing the expiration date column makes me wonder if that is true. Believe it or not, you are the first person that I am aware of to ask about this, so I would like to believe what I have informed people is accurate.

Thanks,
JColvin

[tuskiomi]

@JColvin I'll ask around on the Xilinx forum. There is an additional license for the webpack which is labelled "V_Webpack", I'm not sure what features that enables, but  We'll find out soon.

 

EDIT: The Webpack contains all of the features the the full edition of Vivado does, but it is limited to a select number of older FPGAs.

[Amar]

Hi,

I am also looking to renew the Vivado license for Genesys 2 board. I checked with Xilinx, but they directed me to check with Digilent. The Digilent sales team has asked me check on this forum. Is there some soultion to this? The Vivado license on Xilinx website is very costly and personally I can't manage it. Please let us know if we can renew Vivado for Genesys 2 board.

Regards.

[JColvin]

Hi @Amar,

Does the last version of Vivado Design Edition no longer work on your machine? Or are you looking to be able to activate newer versions of Vivado?

Otherwise, unfortunately Digilent does not sell vouchers for the Design Edition individually as per Xilinx's request. The only way that I am aware of to get access to newer versions of Vivado for the Genesys 2 would be to purchase a second Genesys 2 that includes a voucher. Otherwise, you would need to purchase access to the Design Edition from the Xilinx website.

Thank you,
JColvin