LabVIEW FPGA Idea Exchange

Post an idea

Improve Compile Retrieval Process

Long compile times are a necessary evil of FPGA code. Even with the vast improvements of Vivado, compile time still ranks as the biggest killer of large project efficiency. As compile times approach 3-4 hours, their successful completion becomes paramount. All too often I find that the Xilinx compiler running on the compile worker has completed successfully however some small communication glitch either between my development machine and the farmer or the farmer and the worker has caused the compile to be lost. It is quite frustrating to know you have a completed bitfile from Xilinx but the NI tools will not perform the final processing steps required to create the lvbitx file. The only solution is to restart the compile costing another 3-4 hours of productivity.

Typical workflow in our company for these large projects is to spend mornings testing and stressing the compile(s) from overnight. Then make any bug fixes and incremental feature improvements and try to start a compile by mid-morning. By mid-afternoon when the compile is complete do the process again so that you can process another build for overnight. If one of the compiles fails because of timing or resource problems, there's nothing that can be done. But if it fails because of glitches in NI's compile wrapper code, that becomes a waste of a half of a day of productivity.

I propose that the current methods for compiling bitfiles be modified. The goal is to improve user productivity. Some of my suggestions include:

For a given build specification, give it the ability to re-attempt to retrieve the last completed compile. This option would be available even if the VI's that created that compile had been modified.
If a compile was completed previously for this build specification and there has yet to be a successful lvbitx generation, prompt the user before doing anything that would destroy the ability to retrieve it.
Make sure that all of this still works when changing connections to the worker. For example if I start my compile at work then take my laptop home and want to login to my VPN at night to check on my compile
Don't remove any chance to get a compile if there was a communication error. Right now when I get the communication error, I see a red X in the compilation status and my only option is to remove it from the list.

View All (2)

Hello,

i would suggest some Improvements to the Timing Violations Window.

Highlight the Whole Path with all Element and Wires in the Blockdiagramm when i click on Path in the Timing Violations Window.

Highlight the Element on the Blockdiagramm which i clicked in the Timing Violations Window.

Give the Problem Window of the Timing Violations Window the ability to adjust its size i often have to scroll. (Can be seen in the Timing Violation Window above)

With kind regards

westgate

Compiles Started over a VPN

Enable Auto Indexing for LabVIEW FPGA

Problem:

Auto-Indexing of LabVIEW is extended to LabVIEW FPGA, only with one small caveat. You can easily auto-index into a loop, but not out of it. You will understand this better if you've already worked with LV FPGA.

In the FPGA paradigm, we enforce compile time resource determinism, by making sure all our arrays are of a fixed pre-determined size. In auto-indexing out of a loop, we may not know what the size of the array is, and hence it breaks the VI with the error "Arrays must be of fixed size". Try to write the following code in LV FPGA, for a better picture:

Solution:

The current workaround is that we have a fixed size Array which we then use in and out of the loop, replacing its

elements, as shown below.

However, an easier and much much more intuitive solution for users would be to just right click the auto-indexed tunnel and set the dimension size.

This definitely means that the number of data flowing out of the loop could be more than our fixed size. We handle that case by providing the user with the "In case of overflow" option.

This would ease our effort in coding LV FPGA as much as it would would improve intuitive coding. Vote for this idea if you think it would make your life a tad bit easier.

dedicated FPGA compile server

More FPGA Vision examples

View All (1)

P2P to GPUs

View All (1)

NI 5785 MGT interfacing example

View All (1)

When setting up a custom VI to use as a simulation test bench, you are currently limited to setting a constant path. If you move your VI, send it to another user, change the name, or otherwise change the path of the custom VI, you must enter the FPGA target settings and modify the path. That is, if you moved the project below from user1's desktop to user2's desktop, you would have to enter the properties and change the location. This makes code sharing somewhat tedious.

Using a relative path or a project item would make this feature easier to use.

Hello,

Recently, Last year, i've had a bad experience, when i tried to compile my old FPGA applications with Windows 10.

=> The FPGA ISE XILINX compiler is no more compatible with Windows 10.

Will something be done ? I got no clear answer from NI support ...It should be a XILINX problem !

The issue is that some products on the NI web site, are sold without clear information about the incompatibility with Win 10 !

Please, add a "clear highlighted Warning" on the product page in order to inform about the problem : On FPGA boards and on CRIO targets ...

Thanks for help.

View All (1)

View All (3)

Improved documentation for FPGA memory

When setting up memory in LV FPGA these seems to be one important setting missing....description.

Good programming practice defines that we should have descriptions in our code, similar to the VI description of a global variable. This would also help out immensely when using bit packed memory blocks to define status bytes and such as the description of the individual bit meanings could be added to the description and not having to be dropped as block diagram comments everywhere one of the nodes is used.

INLINE VI'S for FPGA ...

Hello,

In Labview 2010, the implementation of INLINE VIs has been improved. But this feature is not aivalable in Labview FPGA.

When you are looking for ticks/space you have to replace the VI calls by their content ... and then the FPGA VIs becames rapidly unreadable.

I think that inline VI could be very interresting in FPGA because ...

Ability to create userfriendly / updatable / readable / clear FPGA diagrams
Optimize the time/space needed to call a real VI

By default, FPGA VIs should all be "Inline" VIs !

Manu.

Xilinx supports BRAM primitives (FIFO and normal BRAM) with certain varying width read and write ports. For some applications, the ability to write 2x 16 bit values to a FIFO in one loop and read 1x 16 bit value from the FIFO at double clock rate in another loop can be very useful.

As it stands, the IPCore for such BRAM primitives, although present in LabVIEW FPGA, cannot be used without a CLIP (essentially making this aspect of the IPCore useless).

It would be cool if LV would expose the ability to have differing read and write port widths for BRAM.

Presently, the Xilinx Compile Tools do not appear in the MAX technical report or NI License Manager. As a result, to determine the version, users must go to Add/Remove Programs in the control panel to determine which versions they have installed. It would be great for troubleshooting if the Xilinx Version could be implemented into the MAX technical report.

In addition, the Compile Worker states that the version of Xilinx used is 12.4, regardless of whether you are using 12.4 or 12.4 SP1. It would be useful for the compile worker to note which version it is using. Specifically, often the compilation chooses the compile tools based on what it was compiled with previously. When upgrading to 12.4 SP1, the user may think the compiler automatically uses the new compile tools and has no visual cue to verify the compile tools version used.

LabVIEW FPGA Idea Exchange

Improve Compile Retrieval Process

Ability to save module settings, under FPGA target or other, so it can be imported to another target

Improvements of Timing Violations Debuging

Compiles Started over a VPN

Enable Auto Indexing for LabVIEW FPGA

dedicated FPGA compile server

More FPGA Vision examples

Colour coding for Estimated and Final timings

Reference Inputs to Module Property Nodes

Instruction Framework simulation mode support

P2P to GPUs

Instruction Framework examples for modular development

NI 5785 MGT interfacing example

Use relative paths or project items for custom test bench VIs

LabVIEW FPGA ... limited only by Windows 10 !!!

"Adapt to Source" in "FPGA VI Reference" indicator

Improved documentation for FPGA memory

INLINE VI'S for FPGA ...

BRAM Primitives with different Read / Write data widths

Make It Easier to Determine Current Xilinx Compile Tools Version, and Distinguish Between Xilinx 12.4 and Xilinx 12.4 SP1