Used Bittware board - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: AllenB
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2020, 04:15:10 pm
content: So, I just learned a potentially expensive lesson:Bought a used Bittware XUS-P3R board at a very favorable price (for personal use). Went to get the supporting files from Bittware and had to sign up for a developer account, which resulted in a rep reaching out to me. Now I've learned that only the original purchaser is eligible for such delicacies. This seems like a policy mostly intended to place perfectly useful hardware in a 3rd world burn pile rather than somewhere it can be of use.It's possible to reverse-engineer what FPGA pins are hooked to what devices (DRAM, transceiver cages, clock sources, etc) but what a huge pain in the behind.Has anyone got some insight into a solution, or perhaps even a Vivado constraints file or similar data?Thanks,Allen

author: mark03
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2020, 06:38:24 pm
content: That sucks, although I would think an even bigger problem is the lack of a Vivado license. They don't mention a free license on the product page, even for the original purchaser. The ultrascale stuff certainly isn't supported by the free webpack version.

author: asmi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2020, 07:33:21 pm
content: Quote from: mark03 on January 27, 2020, 06:38:24 pmThat's not true. Quite a bit of it is supported in the free version:https://www.xilinx.com/products/design-tools/vivado/vivado-webpack.html#architectureQuote

author: AllenB
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2020, 07:41:13 pm
content: Quote from: mark03 on January 27, 2020, 06:38:24 pmI've got that taken care of via a previous project. It just never occurred to me that the board details and tools would be kept behind a brick wall. Xilinx and Mellanox, to name two, make their board support stuff freely available for download. So now I've got to find a workaround. Suggestions/links/etc appreciated.

author: colorado.rob
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2020, 06:45:50 pm
content: Can you get this information from the person you purchased the board from? Surely they still have access to it.

author: AllenB
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2020, 12:56:37 am
content: A kind soul helped me out with the documentation. That’s the really critical part. So life is good.

author: vincei
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2020, 04:15:15 am
content: Quote from: AllenB on January 30, 2020, 12:56:37 amGreat news. Sounds like an outfit I'll be avoiding and definitely not recommending at work. Good job, Bitware.

author: AllenB
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2020, 02:06:00 am
content: In their defense, they seem to have a very good product. I can sort of understand having some restrictions on the software, but locking up the specs and documentation is just crazy. Would it have been better for a perfectly usable one-generation-old board to be thrown in the trash? No way.

author: Scrts
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2020, 01:52:22 pm
content: Quote from: AllenB on January 31, 2020, 02:06:00 amSome companies have such policy if their hardware can be used for military, space or some other specific field and can be a national threat if handled to certain countries... Not sure about this one though.

author: AllenB
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2020, 01:12:18 am
content: One last note. I later got in touch with someone at BittWare who was kind enough to set me up with a few helpful parts of their software. It may have helped that I work for a potential customer of their products, but he may well have helped regardless.So all ends well and I wanted to pass along some kudos.

author: hallc
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: July 15, 2022, 01:45:42 pm
content: Can you tell about how you solve the problem. Is the documentation contains detail of hardware design? As I meet the same problem but the model is xusp3s.Plus: the board I meet seems to be shipped from other country, almost impossible to find the original buyer (

author: Foxxz
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 15, 2022, 05:29:32 pm
content: Always a good idea to try digging up documents and specs on equipment like that prior to purchase. I have,and probably will, make that mistake again.

author: hallc
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: August 09, 2022, 02:09:57 am
content: Do you mean that there is no way to use the board without the support of original buyer.And it is accrually a blocked board that I spend much money on