ELEC4605 Computer Architecture

Web Site for Semester 1, 2009

Altium Designer Tools

The Altium Designer tools and Altium NanoBoard will be used in tutorials and laboratory.

• Documentation
• Altium Software Tips
• Evaluation Licenses for Student Use

Documentation

There is extensive on-line documentation as part of the installation in the laboratory. They are also available on-line from the Altium web site:

• Altium Designer 6 Learning Guides (html)

Some Altium documentation is also provided as part of the Lecture Notes Part II.

Altium Software Tips

Disc Quota

Disc space can be a problem since you have a limited quota. There is a way to get around this by changing the path of the ProjectOuputs directory, which can be large, to another location:

• Select Project -> Project Options for the current project
• Select the Options tab
• Change the Output Path to be a directory on the local computer's work directory

By doing this, all the temporary files can be stored outside of your account and hence not take up any disc quota. However, this directory will be deleted when you log out, but will be created again once you try to compile/download your design.

Embedded Projects

It is a good idea to create a separate directory for an embedded project which is in the same directory as the associated FPGA project. This way all the generated files will not appear in the same directory as the FPGA project.

Copying Projects

A project consists of a number of source files (VHDL, schematics), project output directory and a history directory. These are linked together by a project file (.PrjXXX). All the project files should be kept in one directory, apart from the project output directory which can be on a local drive.

If you want to create a new project based on an existing project, do not use File -> Save Project As... as this will create a new project file but it will be in the existing directory and be linked to the existing source files, project output directory and a history directory. Problems may occur if the original project and the new project are opened at the same time.

Instead, to create a new project based on an existing project, copy the entire directory to a new name. Also, change the project output directory name to ensure that it is not the same as the original project just in case you open both the new project and the original project at the same time.

Evaluation Licenses for Student Use

Unfortunately, Altium is not providing evaluation licenses free of charge this year for students to use Altium Designer at home. They are instead providing a special offer to purchase a one year license along with some FPGA hardware.