fpga smartxplorer

[JJMontante]

I am using a NI7962R FlexRIO, with a (mostly) stock NI6587 Socket CLIP.  I have a compile that meets timing probably 2/3 of the attemps I make.  The timing fails in the 125MHz chinch domain.  Last evening I re-ran a compile having changed nothing on the block diagram, and the tools were able to close timing in PAR.  When it fails, it misses by ~0.5ns, and it passes by more than 0.9ns when I have a successful compile.

I have registers (feedback nodes) at pretty much every single control/indicator/DMA-FIFO, and the block diagram has been reviewed by an AESpecialist to find and take advantage of design opportunities for timing closure.

Is it possible to get labview FPGA to enable smartxplorer to do the shotgun approach to implementation? 

-J

[T-REX$ · Accepted solution]

Hi JJMontante,

It is not possible to use SmartXplorer with the LabVIEW FPGA Dev environment.

While inconvenient, I can offer a simple recommendation for you however. If you have a license for the FPGA Compile Farm, you could create multiple build specifications that point to the same top level design. This would allow you to spawn multiple compilations to your farm simultaneously... still allowing you to achieve a shotgun approach. Many of our internal development teams use this approach on very tight compilations. If you have any further questions on the subject, I'm sure that the AE Specialist that you worked with can get you in touch with me if necessary.

[JJMontante]

Though I would like to have read a "Yes - this is how..." post, I appreciate your suggestion.  I don't believe we have the compile farm set up - just the local compile worker on several machines.  Any chance I can scheme up a way to point to different machines' compile worker on a per-buildspec basis?

[Ben_S]

Jim,

In LabVIEW 2011 you can set LabVIEW to ask for the compile server before each compilation. To access this option go to Tools » Options » FPGA Module and under the Compile Server section check the box that says, "Prompt to select a compile server for each compilation". This way if you have the compilation tools on multiple machines you can just tell each build spec to go to a different machine.

In LabVIEW 2010 you'll have to set the compliation server in the options before each compilation by going to Tools » FPGA Module Options.