The Xilinx foundation tools are alive and you should be able to start
your lab.  Please read these instructions VERY CAREFULLY.

The tools are presently installed in the Engineering Design Lab on
many of the PCs. 

Log onto one of the PCs and double-click on the Xilinx Foundation
icon.  Choose Create a New Project and click OK when the dialog box
comes up. Fill in the following fields:

Name:  lab1_xx  (where xx are your initials)
Directory:  Z:\students\yourdir
        (assuming \\Engserve1\files is mounted as Z:)
Flow: Schematic
XC4000XL    4010XLPC84    09

Be sure you've set the directory to be your own, not the default
(which is probably something like D:\FNDTN\ACTIVE\PROJECTS).  If you
get a message that there is not enough room on the drive to create the
project, it probably means that the drive does not exist.  Check that
\\Engserve\files is mounted as Z:; if it is not, specify the proper
path to your home directory.

The Xilinx tools do not handle directories with more than 8
characters.  Therefore, if your home directory on engserve1 has more
than 8, you need to talk to Francis and ask him to shorten the name.

Thanks for being patient as we pull this lab together.  I'm confident
that there will be more difficulties, so start early and definitely
contact me or Francis when you encounter trouble.  We'll do our best
to track down and squash bugs as fast as we can and your reports will
make things run more smoothly next time.  There are also likely to be
security issues regarding access to other people's projects.  You are
on the honor code to do your own work.

Lab 1 will be due on Wednesday 2/3.  Lab 2 will be due Friday 2/5 to
give you a bit more time.  Problem Set 2 will be nice and short to
compensate for the extra lab load next week.

The tools do not run off a network server.  However, if you would like
to run them from your home PC, you can borrow a CD from Francis and
install them yourself.  You need about 500 MB of free space on your
disk and at least 64 MB of RAM; more is better.  This is not
recommended for the novice computer hacker; if you install the tools
yourself, you will have to do all your own trouble-shooting.  Francis
will check out the CD to you from the lab for one hour.  Accept the
default options for installation.  However, the only FPGAs you need to
handle are the 4000XL series; you can uncheck the others (like 4000E
or Spartan XL) to reduce the disk space requirements.