Hey Xilinx users, let me have it...

Hi all, it's your (not so) local, (sometimes) friendly, Xilinx IP designer here. I saw the post from u/Is-juiced and also at the prompting of u/ZipCUP, I thought I'd create this post.

Personal pride aside, and even if my career didn't dependent on it, I obviously want our IP and tools to work correctly. Considering I have some ability to affect a change, I'm here to collect your feedback. So, let's hear it.

But first,

  1. Please keep it constructive.
  2. If you have case numbers that were closed, send them to me. We fix most of the issues, but will close or prioritize them if there is a low impact or a suitable workaround.
  3. I'm not an official Xilinx spokesman and I'm doing this on my free time. I can't speculate on anything (AMD, new products, new IP).
  4. It's unlikely that I'll be able to answer every problem to everyone's satisfaction but if there's a genuine problem, I'll try my best to get it fixed.
  5. Tell me what kind of specific documentation improvements you'd like to see.

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To address some specifics that were called out,

  1. tool bugs. I don't disagree that there are bugs. We do prioritize and make fixes and we definitely care about fixing them.
  2. AXI design template - I can't stress enough, DON'T USE IT. It's not official IP and honestly shouldn't be a part of the tools. I'm not sure why it's even there. Go get a proper template. Everything is wrong with the template and casts doubt on our actual IP.
  3. AXI protocol - we know what we're doing here. We defined the standard. If I can gently pick on Dan, at least a few of his complaints came from violating the protocol. Teasing aside, we have a full suite of verification IP and performance metrics that we apply, not just for AXI, but all of our protocol interfaces.
  4. IP bugs - I'd like to hear about these. Of our 200+ IP, we have a handful of older IP that have been untouched for quite a few years. If there are bugs in them, we do leave them as-is and document the appropriate workaround. Outside of those, we fix our IP as fast as possible, especially if we introduce a new issue. If there's enough interest, I'll discuss our rigorous verification and validation process.
  5. tool bloat - This one is personally frustrating every time I have to download a copy of the new tools. Every time we add new parts, new IP, and new development tools, it grows.