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Main Window
Launching Impulse opens the main window of the tool within the graphical interface (following figure).
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The Impulse interface at start is organized around:
a horizontal Menu presenting rolling options managed by File, Edit, Tools, Window & Help buttons
a starting window with a direct selection view between either creation of new project or loading an existing project, and an access to the help section
the python console showing and allowing executed python commands in the GUI
Help
The Help rolling menu gives access to several useful sections:
Open Help and Documentation Window section giving access to FPGA variant datasheets, Impulse user guide and starter troubleshooting for beginners
Get Technical Support explains the procedure to ask questions or support using support@nanoxplore.com
License Manager displays all enable features by the license file provided by NanoXplore
About Impulse reports the current software version with the associated distribution
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a. Basic starter questions and explanations with documentation
Help & troubleshooting section gives some advice for Impulse beginners who may ran into flow known issues and who are looking for some explanations:
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Startup Page
When you launch Impulse, a welcome screen opens offering quick access to startup tools. The Start Page is divided into The following sections:
Toolbar
The main toolbar at top of the page displays the menus with available tools and optionsStart
The Start section at left contains 3 options:Create New Project
Opens the Project Creation Wizard which guides you through the steps to create a new projectOpen Project
Opens the File Manager to import your desired project into ImpulseOpen Example Project
Opens an example project with prefilled sample data and information to help become familiar with the tools and features in Impulse such as the Project Creation Wizard and Design Flow funtionalities
Note: You can use your Example Project to run any step of the Design Flow
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Tip: Click on the Run button in any step in the Design Flow to automatically run all previous steps |
Recent
The area at right of the page displays the last opened projects (use your mouse-wheel to scroll down the list of recent projects)Learn
Opens the Help and Documentation window with access to NX FPGA range datasheets, Impulse User Guide and beginner-level troubleshooting articles and FAQ’sPython Console
The console enables you to execute python commands in the GUI or view any python command that was previously executed in the interface
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Help
The Help menu contains the followint options:
Open Help and Documentation
The Help and Documentation page gives access to NX FPGA range datasheets, Impulse User Guide and beginner-level troubleshooting articles and FAQ’sFind Technical Support
Access to our Support Team for any questions about our products or licensesReport Issue
Opens the NanoXplore Support Portal with access to Ticket Creation, Knowledge Base Articles, Release Notes, etc.)License Manager
Displays list of all features enabled by the NanoXplore license file management toolAbout Impulse
Displays the current software version with the associated distribution informattion
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Help & Troubleshooting
The Help & Troubleshooting section at bottom of the Help and Documentation page provides basic help and troubleshooting steps for beginners. Here you can find descriptions about key concepts, instructions to perform basic operations or workaroundqs to known issues.
How To
The How To guides provide step by step instructions to perform basic operations such as project creation, I/O pad configuration or bitstream generation.
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Design Flow Overviews
These are general functional descriptions of the Impulse Design Flow features, including conceptual presentations and details of the Synthesis, Place and Route.
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Known
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Issues
These describe common issues and their workarounds, such as oversize, overflow
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behaviour or blending tile errors you may encounter during execution of the placing and routing phases.
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- How To section describes usual tool manipulations to perform basic operations such as project creation, IO pads configuration or how to generate a bitstream
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b. License Manager
The License Manager lists all enable features - including available FPGA variants, specific options & attributes - under the current license file.
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c. License information
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Creation
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New Project
a. Creation of an example project
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Impulse can load a project at each flow milestone called synthesise Synthesise, Place & Route with their associated flow steps as long as a file at .nym format has been generated during flow execution of the corresponding step.
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In the details, the Impulse project manager interface is organized organised around a horizontal scrolling menu and a vertical icon list.
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Memories report
The memories.rpt file is organized organised in two sections:
Memory Cells analysis reports all memory elements used during synthesis step. Models and instance names are provided.
Memory Instances processing reports how memories are processed.
Operators report
The operators.rpt file is organized organised in two sections:
Operator Cells analysis reports all operators (adder, subtractor, multiplier, comparator, etc…) used during synthesis step. Models and instance names are provided.
Operator Instances processing reports how operators are transformed.
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