Please, take note this is my first post in the forums so maybe this is not the correct place to ask this question. Point me to the correct place if that’s the case.
I have a question about how to program the FPGA using the tools available from Microchip. In the documentation (Microchip FPGA Tools Installation Guide — BeagleBoard Documentation) i can see you have to request one license just for 1 year and my question is about what’s going to happen when that year has gone. Anyone knows that? I mean, can I request another license? Do I have to purchase the paid version of the software?
Thank you so much in advance.
PD: I’m going to use the BeagleV Fire just for testing purposes and maybe for some home made projects.
I agree with @gbernaldo concerns, that was something I too noticed when looking for the tools.
They are setting that up like typical big tech, once your company depends upon the tools it will become a “paid subscription”.
You either pay up or else, nothing states that it will be lifetime FREE tools. When they omit stuff it is due to forward planning with a hidden agenda. If they were honest up front not many would touch the product, hence omit the negative and lure you in then set the trap…
In the entire history of FPGAs over more than 3 decades I have never seen a vendor do the customer wrong with their licensing.
I do find however that Microchip is behind in keeping their tools up to date as the current release 2023.2 will not load correctly on Ubuntu 23.04. In fact the tool makes a warning, “don’t do it”.
That then begs the question. Oh, what to do? Very frustrating, considering the profound power of the BeagleV-Fire. I wonder if its possible to set a fire on the backside of the tools manager?
Its most certainly not like it was 30 years ago.
Back then I used many of their 8 & 16 uC’s and it was very good stuff. Some where I still have, believe it or not PRINTED MANUALS for some of the stuff.( I have been out of that loop for 20+ years).
Now days, I live in a zero trust world.
Just look around and evaluate what has gone down and how big tech operates…When stuff starts to smell it is best to move onto something else.
That might be tied to some glibc version issues and it might also depend on how much python2 has not been converted to python3. Just a guess from out of the air, not for fact.
The only thing that makes sense is that they have working away like beavers for the next tools release and can’t be bothered with the buzzing of flies.
It took a while to find out that 2.37 and 2.35 are not working together. Did manage to get the 2.37 glibc board to light up gtk remotely with netbeans on 2.35 glibc ubuntu 22.04. Its all working now, glad that is over with. Hopefully that will be water under the bridge.