Just following up on this, because I just did something reckless and actually bought a MATLAB license.
I can compile a simple design with some counters and yellow blocks with just MATLAB, Simulink, and Fixed Point Designer toolbox. This is the absolute minimum to get anything to work. (The UFix/Fix datatype isn't supported without the fixed-point toolbox, and this is needed everywhere). It looks like the DSP System Toolbox is used by some of the ADC yellow block simulation circuits (which often use downsample blocks). I suspect this requirement can be worked around. I haven't yet encountered anything that needs the signal processing toolbox, though I haven't tried compiling anything with any significant DSP content. Cheers Jack On Mon, 13 Jan 2020 at 17:20, 'Christman, Nicholas P' via casper@lists.berkeley.edu <casper@lists.berkeley.edu> wrote: > Adam, > > > > Thank you so much for this detailed response and the list of toolboxes you > currently use for SKARAB! As an embedded engineer working with FPGAs, I > empathize with you and your team – I’ve always struggled with the fact that > there are so many options to achieve the same goal when developing a system > with an FPGA at the core, and that choosing the “best” of many options was > so complex and time consuming. Now throw in OpenCL, Vitis, etc., and you > have a whole new layer of options! I look forward to hearing about your > progress later in the year. Best of luck. > > > > FWIW, the only toolbox that I was not aware of from my initial > investigation of “required” toolboxes is the Fixed-Point Designer Toolbox – > I may add it to our list of toolboxes or proceed without it and see if the > toolflow throws an error. I will respond to this thread if I learn anything > new. > > > > R/ > > Nick > > > > __________________________________________________ > > *Nicholas Christman* > > Electrical Engineer, > > Systems Engineering / Testing & Evaluation, > > Advanced Engineered Systems Group > > Pacific Northwest National Laboratory > > (509) 371-6638 > > > > *From:* Adam Isaacson <aisaac...@ska.ac.za> > *Sent:* Thursday, January 09, 2020 1:44 AM > *To:* Casper Lists <casper@lists.berkeley.edu> > *Subject:* Re: [casper] RE: Matlab Toolbox Requirements > > > > Dear Nick and Neil, > > > > Thanks for your email. > > > > @Nick: these are the toolboxes I use for my Matlab R2018a update pack 6 > when using SKARAB: > > > > >> ver > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > MATLAB Version: 9.4.0.949201 (R2018a) Update 6 > MATLAB License Number: 967932 > Operating System: Linux 4.4.0-159-generic #187-Ubuntu SMP Thu Aug 1 > 16:28:06 UTC 2019 x86_64 > Java Version: Java 1.8.0_144-b01 with Oracle Corporation Java HotSpot(TM) > 64-Bit Server VM mixed mode > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > MATLAB Version 9.4 > (R2018a) > Simulink Version 9.1 > (R2018a) > DSP System Toolbox Version 9.6 > (R2018a) > Fixed-Point Designer Version 6.1 > (R2018a) > Signal Processing Toolbox Version 8.0 > (R2018a) > > > > I have never tried it without all these toolboxes. You may be able to get > away with removing one or two of the last three toolboxes. I guess it > depends what libraries you use. The best way to see is to contact your > Matlab supplier and ask for a trial or evaluation license with the various > options. Also, refer to > https://casper.berkeley.edu/index.php/getting-started/ > <https://protect2.fireeye.com/v1/url?k=74081e20-28bd2199-74083435-0cc47adc5fce-4d02cad7387736ed&q=1&e=7e4083ed-0f71-4225-ba61-4d81b5b8bfc0&u=https%3A%2F%2Fcasper.berkeley.edu%2Findex.php%2Fgetting-started%2F> > for > how to get started with the toolflow and tutorials. > > > > Yes, Matlab/Simulink is expensive. Here is a brief hstory of the toolflow. > It used to be written entirely in Matlab i.e. no python. The ROACH/ROACH2 > uses this Matlab toolflow. The ROACH2 has recently become deprecated and > the newer boards (SKARAB, Red Pitaya, SNAP and SNAP2) use the latest > toolflow. The latest toolflow still uses Matlab/Simulink - but only the > front end. The rest of the toolflow is written in python 3. The CASPER > development team have spent many years creating DSP libraries in Simulink. > We are currently still using these libraries and SKARAB will continue to > use Matlab/Simulink. > > > > I can tell you that the idea is to move away from Matlab/Simulink or make > provision for other front ends as well, but there is lots to consider. This > actually started in 2016. This would mean you would only need a license for > the FPGA compile tool i.e. Vivado. In my opinion, the current test > philosophy with the CASPER tools needs to be addressed e.g. unit testing > etc. The current toolflow also only supports VHDL or verilog (RTL) and > Xilinx. The industry is also trending to targeting FPGAs using OpenCL or > HLS, which is software based. There are new tools on the market such as > Vitis, which allows software developers to target FPGAs as if they were > GPUs. Vitis is completely free, but does use Vivado under the hood and you > still need a license for Vivado. It comes with a set of software DSP > libraries that are all open source, so you could remove Matlab/Simulink and > just have a host application that uses these libraries. This then allows us > to use the integrated test environments that Vitis provides, which helps > solve the unit testing issue. We are also looking at the new Xilinx Alveo > Data Accelerator cards (U280) and we will be CASPERising it - talk to me in > December :). There is also PYNQ, which is python based and supports a whole > range of hardware including the Alveo cards. We are currently in the > investigation phase to decide what the next step is for the CASPER > toolflow, but there is still lots to explore. > > > > We will give more feedback towards the end of this year. > > > > Kind regards, > > > > Adam Isaacson > > South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) > > Hardware Manager > > Cell: (+27) 825639602 > > Tel: (+27) 215067300 > > email: aisaac...@ska.ac.za > > > > > > On Wed, Jan 8, 2020 at 8:07 PM Neil Salmon <n.sal...@mmu.ac.uk> wrote: > > I’m not sure about the CASPER plan, but there’s a whole load of free > modules from a multitude of users from many other areas, including > tensorflow, it must be the way forward now. When I write new code I go > straight to Python and bring in C++ for speed. Good luck, N. > > > > *From:* 'Christman, Nicholas P' via casper@lists.berkeley.edu < > casper@lists.berkeley.edu> > *Sent:* 08 January 2020 18:01 > *To:* casper@lists.berkeley.edu > *Subject:* [casper] RE: Matlab Toolbox Requirements > > > > Thank you Neil for the quick response. I agree and think that is an > excellent path for the future… is a “full Python” toolflow in a working > state? If I’m not mistaken, migrating to Python is the future plan for the > CASPER toolflow but it is not yet developed nor is it being used yet. Or am > I wrong? > > > > Thanks, > > > > R/ > > Nick > > __________________________________________________ > > *Nicholas Christman* > > Electrical Engineer, > > Systems Engineering / Testing & Evaluation, > > Advanced Engineered Systems Group > > Pacific Northwest National Laboratory > > > > *From:* Neil Salmon <n.sal...@mmu.ac.uk> > *Sent:* Wednesday, January 08, 2020 9:51 AM > *To:* casper@lists.berkeley.edu > *Subject:* [casper] RE: Matlab Toolbox Requirements > > > > In the longer term, move over to Python. N > > > > *From:* 'Christman, Nicholas P' via casper@lists.berkeley.edu < > casper@lists.berkeley.edu> > *Sent:* 08 January 2020 17:38 > *To:* casper@lists.berkeley.edu > *Subject:* [casper] Matlab Toolbox Requirements > > > > Good Morning CASPER Group, > > > > My name is Nick Christman and I’m currently working through the SKARAB / > CASPER toolflow integration process. Under normal circumstances, my > organization has access to most of the Matlab toolboxes; however, it seems > our project will need the DSP Toolbox license (not included by our org) > which essentially means we will need to acquire standalone Matlab + > Simulink licenses and all of the other toolboxes necessary to work with the > SKARAB hardware. Herein lies our dilemma and the reason I’m reaching out to > the group. > > > > Ideally, to remain efficient and economical for the project, we would > acquire only the necessary Matlab toolboxes that will allow us to execute > the CASPER toolflow. Has anyone attempted this type of “minimal” > installation for the CASPER toolflow? If so, do you have a list of required > toolboxes? Or perhaps there is an alternative approach to solve our dilemma? > > > > Thank you and I appreciate your support, > > > > R/ > > Nick > > __________________________________________________ > > *Nicholas Christman* > > Electrical Engineer, > > Systems Engineering / Testing & Evaluation, > > Advanced Engineered Systems Group > > Pacific Northwest National Laboratory > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups " > casper@lists.berkeley.edu" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to casper+unsubscr...@lists.berkeley.edu. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/a/lists.berkeley.edu/d/msgid/casper/SA9PR09MB503902B9F5F69F372432ABB3F03E0%40SA9PR09MB5039.namprd09.prod.outlook.com > 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