general question

[iyer25]

Hi 

I am currently uisng v2019.1 SDSOC, VIVADO and Petalinux for my application développent and HARDWARE: zedboard with pcam cameras. 

I was  planning to upgrade to VITIS (V2019.2? V2020.1? V2020.2) 

which version would anyone recommned me to change on. 

Reason for this is to able to use some IP blocks for free and include them in my design. 

 

[zygot]

I suppose that the first question would be: are you sure that the newer versions provide the free IP that you want, and that lets you do what you want to do with it?

Before installing a new version of the tools I'd carefully read through all of the release notes to be sure that the new bugs aren't a problem. Vitis doesn't have great support for older devices like the ZYNQ 70xx. As of Vitis 2020.2 it doesn't even support Xilinx boards like the ZCU106.

Vivado has been undergoing lots of changes beginning with 2019.1 and historically this means a bumpy ride for users.

As far as I know Petalinux still isn't integrated with Vitis and can only be used on a Linux host. I recently installed Vitis 2020.2 on Centos 7 ( alas red hat has killed off all the other versions ) and didn't have any install issues, which hasn't happened for a long time. Other than that I don't know of any reason to use the later tools. On WIN10 I still use Vivado 2019.1 and the SDK.

Be aware that free IP given on tools version X might not be free on any later versions.

Last week before I changed internet service providers I ran across a curious thing. I was unable to see, much less access older versions of the tools on Centos 7 using Firefox but had no issues on Centos 6 using and earlier version of Firefox built for Centos 6. The tools Vivado Archive page has a notice the "We strongly recommend using the latest releases available". I strongly urge users to ignore that advice and do some homework before installing any version. Personally, I'd need a very compelling reason to change tools while in the middle of a project. There are always bugs and nasty surprises that Xilxin hasn't gotten around to addressing or admitting to.

[iyer25]

Thank you for this answer. Also could you clarify on licence part for SDSOC v2019.1? is It free ? Beacuse every 60 or 90 days I have trouble with expiré. 

Did I miss something here?

I need to be careful here now because I wil be uisng Z7020 till the end of this year. I will be needing support

17 minutes ago, zygot said:

I suppose that the first question would be: are you sure that the newer versions provide the free IP that you want, and that lets you do what you want to do with it?

Before installing a new version of the tools I'd carefully read through all of the release notes to be sure that the new bugs aren't a problem. Vitis doesn't have great support for older devices like the ZYNQ 70xx. As of Vitis 2020.2 it doesn't even support Xilinx boards like the ZCU106.

Vivado has been undergoing lots of changes beginning with 2019.1 and historically this means a bumpy ride for users.

As far as I know Petalinux still isn't integrated with Vitis and can only be used on a Linux host. I recently installed Vitis 2020.2 on Centos 7 ( alas red hat has killed off all the other versions ) and didn't have any install issues, which hasn't happened for a long time. Other than that I don't know of any reason to use the later tools. On WIN10 I still use Vivado 2019.1 and the SDK.

Be aware that free IP given on tools version X might not be free on any later versions.

 

[zygot]

2 hours ago, iyer25 said:

Also could you clarify on licence part for SDSOC v2019.1? is It free ?

No, because I've never used that tool. To my knowledge only the WEB version of Vivado is free to use. The SdSOC and HLS tools will get installed for a limited evaluation period. You need to open the Vitis or Vivado License Manager to see which of the tools and IP are permanent and which have expiration dates. It's unfortunate that the Xilinx installer encourages you to install tools that aren't free to use but all of the FPGA vendors have their own version of the whack-a-mole  game for their customers to play. Evidently, irritating customers and potential paying customers isn't something that programmable logic vendors worry about.

If you don't have a device or IP license to use with a particular version of a particular tool then stick with the WEB version.

 

[JColvin]

Agreed on sticking with the free web version of Xilinx tools if you don't have a device or IP that require licensed versions.

As for the SDSoC license, I don't have a clean answer for that; the voucher that Digilent had/has (I'm not sure which) is a voucher for 1 years worth of updates/downloads for SDSoC, after that point you would not be able to download any new versions. However, the Xilinx page for SDSoC says it's been rolled into Vitis, though I don't know what all has changed or if it needs it's own special license; I haven't seen Xilinx documentation saying it needs it's own license, but I wouldn't bet money on it.