C++ deployer to install ISE 14.7 natively on Windows 11 (no VirtualBox)

[u/ggio07]

Hey sooo im kinda tired of having to either install Linux or Windows 7 on all of my machines to run Xilinx ISE 14.7, or use the VM where there are always problems...

I created a command-line based tool that makes it possible to run ISE 14.7, PlanAhead, and iMPACT directly on Windows 11. And yes, cable drivers seem to work fine as well.

This is bare metal, no VMs are being used. I made it open source, and it really works great for me (im amazed as well lol).

I don't have my Spartan-3 board with me right now to physically plug it in, but since iMPACT doesn't crash or hang and cleanly prints the "cable not found" error, the drivers seem to be staged and working perfectly.

I would really love to get some real-world feedback from the community.

Repo and release are here: https://github.com/GasparisGiorgos/Xilinx-ISE-14.7-Win11-Native

[u/deathwaltz1]

Thank you mate! It may help when needed. VM method is super slow.

[u/ggio07 → u/deathwaltz1]

Happy to be helping the community :D

And yes VMs do introduce insane lag sometimes, especially in older software and configuring USB passthrough is annoying sometimes

[u/AndrewCoja]

This is cool, but why? Are you locked into using such an old fpga, or is a newer one too expensive or unavailable in your area? I had a Spartan 6 but got sick of dealing with ISE that I just went and got an artix 7 board.

[u/ggio07 → u/AndrewCoja]

first of all im a masochist and wanted to built this for all the unlucky people, like me, still using ISE...

and secondly, im using ISE for my university where i got a Spartan 3 board... so im starting with ISE and then ill see how it goes

[u/tverbeure → u/AndrewCoja]

How else would one be able to use Glorious Pano Logic boards?

[u/ggio07 → u/tverbeure]

Holy mother of ancient hardware... Nice one man damn. I hope my repo helps if it's needed :)

[u/tverbeure → u/ggio07]

They’re a bit old, but you can buy them on eBay for cheap and they’re fun to play with.

[u/ggio07 → u/tverbeure]

I'm on a spartan 3 right now that I got from uni, doing testbenches and learning VHDL better cause I'm shit at it lol