PicoRadio Test Bed Workspace Setup

The primary design entry tools for the test bed are the ARM Project Manager (APM) for software and Workview Office (WVOffice) for Xilinx designs.  Workview Office is a suite of tools for schematic capture, HDL compilation, simulation and timing analysis, file format conversion, etc.  You will directly use Viewdraw for schematic capture and Digital Fusion for simulation. Creation of the Xilinx bit file is done automatically through a make procedure. These pages do not go into detail on use of the tools.

1) Install the Tools

Make sure the tools highlighted in green and/or blue in the Tool Setup page are installed as instructed. This may take some time (1 - 2 hours).  Make sure to read the referenced notes whether or not the tool needs installation.  For much of your design, you can work at a floor machine.  

Simulation of ARM code can be done using the ARMulator (ARM instruction set emulator).  When you test real hardware you'll have to be on a lab laptop.  The laptops should have all the tools installed already.  

For the design itself, I recommend that you work from a networked workspace rather than making copies on the laptops.  *** On the floor machines you need administrator privileges to install tools - see Kevin or Brian ***

2) Create the Workspace

  1. Copy \\hitz\Designs\PicoRadio\TestBed\Support\WORKSPACE_TEMPLATE to the place where your project should live.  

  2. Change the name to something relevant.  In the following sections, I'll call this <your workspace directory>. 

If you will be sharing this project with others it would be best to put it in \\hitz\Designs\TestBed\Applications.  Take a look at the projects that are already there.  In any case, if you plan on doing work on the real hardware put your workspace on the network (NOT on the C: drive) so you can reference it from the lab laptops.

Documentation on ARM APIs can be found here.
Documentation on the Xilinx libraries can be found here.

3) Customize the ARM Project

4) Customize the Xilinx Project

You are now ready to start work.

Maintainer: Fred Burghardt
Modified: October 4, 2000