Programming VHDL on Linux?

Question

Hello,

Anyone knows good enviroment to program VHDL and simulate it (don't matter Xilinx or Altera) using Linux?

Thanks Br

Answer 1

You're stuck with either vendors tools, which are spotty at best on Linux (though my experience with Alteras utilities are somewhat better than with ISE).

However, if all you want to do is run your testbed, not actually synthesize anything, ghdl will be of use.

Answer 2

Hello ignatius,

If you prefer open source tools, look into http://www.cliftonlabs.com/vhdl/savant.html - vhdl does not have too many options in the FOSS space currently. If you are opting for vendor tools, all vendors would do Linux version of their simulators. Modelsim is a personal favorite due to the easy-to-debug features that it sports.

For a coding environment, I usually use VIM with vhdl syntax checkers turned on. Sigasi apparently has a commercial IDE with fancy stuff as automatic code completion, on the fly syntax check etc.

Let us know if you have further questions.

Arpan

Answer 3

As mentioned by Arpan (almost) every VHDL simulator is supported by Linux, but they are usually very expensive. Your best shot would be to use one of the following:

• Altera DS Web edition (Linux support has just been added) which comes with a free version of ModelSim.
• Symphony EDA Sonata 3.1 is available as a free version with limited support.
• Xilinx ISE which comes with Xilinxs own simulator: ISim.