For the simulation part of the exercises we will be using the freely available EDAPlayground at edaplayground.com. This includes a web-based environment for developing HDL and some simulators (both free and commercial) to analyze the behavior of our circuits. To use the commercial simulators you will need to create an account with an institutional email address. Steps are as follows:

1) go to edaplayground.com

2) click on Register for a full account

3) enter the required fields in the form. Please USE AN INSTITUTION EMAIL ADDRESS and not a freely available email address or the account may be blocked.

4) check your email and activate your account by confirming your email address.

5) You will be logged in and will be able to play with the HDL of your choice. For our exercises please choose VHDL in the “Testbench+Design” dropdown list and “None” in the Libraries items list.

You will be able to create different files for design (right pane) and testbench (left pane). You will have to indicate the top level design entity in the “Top Entity” textbox. Choose Aldec Riviera Pro 2017 as your simulator under “Tools & Simulators” and check “Open EPWave after run”.

After you edit the files, to run the simulator press “Run”. You can load some examples by clicking on Playgrounds -> Published Playground in top right or Examples -> VHDL from the left pane.

If time will be sufficient we will also have a look at some EDA Tools by Xilinx, the most widespread vendor. This will, on the other hand, be run as a live demo. If you want to try installing the tools on your machine, nevertheless, (you may encounter issues with some versions of windows 10) you can follow this procedure.

Go to https://www.xilinx.com/products/design-tools/ise-design-suite.html

(if the above link doesn’t work go to www.xilinx.com, and in the menu bar click on “Developers” and then on “ISE Design Suite” in the “Hardware Development” category.)

In the page that opens click on “Downloads” in the “Quick Links” tab.

Download the version 14.7 which is appropriate for your OS release (Windows 10, Windows 7/XP or Linux).

You will need to create an account or sign in using your credentials and fill in a form.

After the download completes extract the installer and run the setup. 

When setup is done, you will need to get a WEBPACK (free) license. This will be sent to your email and you will need to paste it in the license manager.