New PLD Compiler WinCUPL II released (PLDs part 10)

Added: 2026-04-29

[00:00:00]Welcome to breadboarding. I just going to interrupt the current 386 breadboard PC series of videos to cover an update to the program or logic devices. The reason for this is that Windcup 2 has now been officially released. It's now at version 1.1. The beta of this was released in August 2025 and I've been using that in most my videos since around September. Not really had too many problems. I thought I'd just show you an update to show the improvement and where there are still one or two minor issues for improvement.

[00:00:31]This is video 10 in the program logic devices series and this covers the windcup 2 release. So in the videos earlier in the series I had a number of slides to do with how to use windcup and about the documentation and I've resurrected some of those slides and I'm just going to go through them to call out where the differences are. So if you're actually looking at any of the earlier series and there will be a link in the top right hand corner here for the playlist to go through the whole series and there will be links in the description below the video as well. So in order to install Winup 2 for microchip we just actually click on the same link that I provided in the previous series. And when we go into the winup, we'll now find that the original win 5, which was the very old Windows XP supporting version, this has now been replaced really by the Win UPL 2. And this was at 1.0 since around August. And I think this must have been released within the last month or so. So to install it, just download it, unzip it, and run the installer. And you'll end up with a windupl folder. And again, it does recommend you install it in the wincup folder off your C root directory and don't include any spaces in it. Now, when we actually have a look at what's in here, it's very similar to the previous version, but you can see that a lot of the command line versions are all from 2004.

[00:02:04]And this is basically just a shell that calls these various CUPL and fitter executables. So it doesn't look like there's been too much update to any of the underlying components, but the whole guey layer has been refreshed and there are now examples. All the examples are in their own folder. That does make things a bit easier to see all of the generated files and things, but there are one or two problems to do with the samples, which I'll cover in a few minutes. So let's have a look at it. So now when you run up wind upl you need to actually create a project file first and that's the first issue really is that if we were trying to look at some of the samples you actually have to create a project file first before you can even look at a sample.

[00:02:49]So if we look at the IO decoder for example, what we actually need to do first of all is to have a look at the example designs and see that the IO decoder is actually an ATF 22v10 28 pin PLCC.

[00:03:06]And the reason why we need that is that when we create the project file, we have to specify that and there's a good chance if you try and compile it, it may not necessarily work. So, we're actually going to have a ATF 22V10C.

[00:03:21]It's the 28 pin PLC.

[00:03:27]And we won't choose any special options.

[00:03:29]So, we now need to provide a file name for it as well.

[00:03:34]And in general, I normally just copy the PLLD name and uh get rid of the PLLD.

[00:03:45]So it detects there's already a design file in there and there's also a simulation as well. And then it shows us now the two files that we have in here.

[00:03:54]Now I'd recommend now at this point in time we save it. And the reason is I'll explain in a few minutes.

[00:04:01]So if we now have a look over to the compiler options there are a few things we might need to enable. So in particular if we want the equations and the fuse plot in the doc file for example it's produced in the Jed file there is the quick minimization might want to enable some optimizations certainly if a design doesn't fit then you may need to apply some of those optimizations but in general all you need to do is to compile it and see it runs the command line versions in the background there and now we can actually see all the output files. So if we look at the doc file, we can see that this is the documentation file with the fuse map and this particular version doesn't produce a very good chip layout for the PLCC version. If we use the DIP version of this, then this would actually produce a better output.

[00:04:55]And it does also include the design simulation because this one has the simulation file here. We can click simulate.

[00:05:03]Now this doesn't have the same guey of the previous windsim version. And if we look at the simulation output file then this will actually show us all the various uh rules that have been executed and if there were any problems of any of these rules and it would actually highlight in here. So the lack of the windsim graphical output is is not really a big issue. Uh we can still determine whether or not the tests have executed or not. So what are the problems with this? Well, the biggest issue really is that if we now save the project file here and if I was to go into this folder and perhaps delete some of the files. So, let's just uh delete some of the files down the bottom here.

[00:05:50]So, we've deleted most of the output files here. So, we've still got the WCP, which is the project file, the SI file, which is simulation file, and the PLD file. Now if you remember I saved this when I actually uh had generated all these files. If we now just exit and run up wind upl again. If we now try and open our project here we'll find that abs file does not exist and in fact any of those files didn't exist then in fact it won't allow us to open the project.

[00:06:23]Now I would say that's quite a major issue really. And in fact the only real way how you can work around it is you've got to create a new project file. So in fact you need to create a new project file. This time I'll create it a 24 pin dip. Create project.

[00:06:40]We can actually select that and overwrite it.

[00:06:44]It's brought it in. We now do compile.

[00:06:51]It's probably failed because we don't have enough pins because of the pin layout and stuff in here. But you can see that uh that's one of the problems with new windcupl in that if you do actually delete any of the files or you perhaps move your project file to another machine where you haven't already got all of the output files and it won't actually open the project file.

[00:07:12]This doesn't really seem to be the way how you might expect it to work. by all means warn that a file doesn't exist, but you shouldn't prevent a project from opening just because some of the internal working files don't exist.

[00:07:25]So although WinPL2 doesn't crash like it used to, there are one or two issues there which I'll summarize towards the end. And now what we do is use the design flow option and compile. Although you might need to go into the options page to set some of the output options if you want some of the additional output in the doc file for example. Now, as far as all the documentation, that's really where things have really improved a lot. So, I went through a number of slides going through where all the information was buried in the original windcup. And in fact, that has greatly improved.

[00:07:58]So in fact if you go to the contents first then you'll get a nice overview general background information some sort of diagrams and things about the actual design environment and the device options and cupl extensions. This is really the bit that was quite tricky to get. you had to look in combinations the release notes and the device PDF. Now, this actually includes all of the extensions by the different devices and uh that's a lot better than it was previously.

[00:08:37]We've got a list of the example designs, which is good apart from the missing project files. And I suspect one of the reasons why there may not be project files there that if you actually save the project file after you've generated all the output then no one will be able to actually use that project file to open the project if it didn't have the compiled outputs and then there's some error messages. So if you do get errors then there's the explanations of what those are. So this has been a great improvement and then in winup itself there's also a tutorial. So the quick start tutorial very similar to what you had previously will take you through how to create the project the device though it does then say at the end save the project once you've created all these intermediate files. So if you ever copied the project file onto another computer somewhere you would not be able to use that project file. So that's something that probably does need to be addressed in a future update. Then there's a users guide.

[00:09:34]Some of these have got preliminary on them. So hopefully these will be finalized. Uh I suspect some of the diagrams in here uh may look like they may have come from earlier versions and they might be looking at perhaps redoing some of these because one or two of the diagrams in other documents are not perfect.

[00:09:52]And the Cup reference guide. Again, this is a big improvement in that previously this information was only in a Windows help file which you couldn't actually use in later versions of Windows. I did show in the earlier series I'd actually generated used a help to word generator to actually create a a word version and a PDF version of this but this is a great improvement but again some of the diagrams in here are a bit rough around the edges they have come from um you know documents from about 20 or 30 years ago which have sort of jaggedy bits around some of these diagrams you can see they're a bit pixelated here but uh perhaps what they're hoping to do is to tidy up some of these perhaps In later versions, the fitter manual is a little bit shorter than the previous version.

[00:10:39]There is a tutorial, although don't save the project at the very end there, or else we won't be able to use it on any other machine. And the example list PDF has 44 samples. 10 of them are relevant to the ATF-16 V8 and the ATF22 V10. So, the slightly more examples for these simpler chips. Most of the examples are the ATF 750C, 1500, and 2500. And just be aware that if you're buying a programmer, then to use a 750C and the 2500, then you need a high-end programmer. Now, a number of people have asked about what programmers I used.

[00:11:15]Now, the original series I used an earlier generation programmer, the uh 866 version two, I think it was, but that's now been replaced by the T48 programmer.

[00:11:29]So, this is probably sufficient for most people's needs, unless you want to use some of the more advanced PLLDs like the 750 and the 2500, which I haven't been able to get the 2500 to work even with the more expensive programmer. This is probably going to be uh an adequate replacement. Now, you can get it through uh Amazon. You can also buy them on eBay quite a bit cheaper. The T-56 that I have is no longer made, but the T76 actually comes with quite a lot of these adapters. So, these adapters allow you to program a variety of PLC chips and things. Uh it is a lot more expensive. I believe you can get it a bit cheaper than that off eBay, but uh really if you've not done any of this before, I'd start with the T48 for about £50. And then if you really find that you want to use some of these more advanced chips, then look at finding a cheaper place to get your T76 from.

[00:12:25]There are still some of the documents that I referenced in the previous video.

[00:12:30]So there's a very old document here from logical devices who were the original manufacturers of CUPL. So that has some different information in from some of the others. There's also this document here again which has certain cupl references. There are still certain guides and things up on the microchip atmail pages and there's obviously the documents under the chip definitions and now the windcup 2 help files are actually got most of this documentation as well. But it's always worthwhile having a look at some of the other documents cuz sometimes there's things they cover in there that may not be covered in the same level of detail in later versions.

[00:13:13]So, in summary then, WindPL 2 is a big improvement, but there are a few minor issues. I've been using the beta since September 2025, and it has been reliable. I've not really had any problems with the tool in any of the outputs as far as the improvements that could be made to it. So, if Microchip are listening to this, thanks for providing the updated version, but there are a few little rough edges. So, the fact that no project files are provided with example files is a bit of a blocker for somebody trying to sort of find their way around using a tool because unless you chose exactly the right device type, then you're probably not going to be able to successfully compile them. When saving a project file with all the generated output files, this will then prevent the project from opening whenever these files are missing. So, it means that you couldn't actually share a project file with someone else if you've ever saved it with these output files. So the workound really is you have to recreate the project file which does seem a little bit uh poorly thought out. The fitter manual is marked as preliminary and is a bit shorter than the one provided with version one and there are some examples in the appendices. I'm not sure how relevant those are. There's no windsim simulator graphical view or similar output. That's not really a big problem in that if the tests fail then you'll get a notification dur in the simulator and then you can then check the output file to see where the problems were. Again the tutorial suggests after successfully compiling and simulating the design that you save the project. So this will save the project with all of the additional generated output files and that will stop you ever using that project on a computer where you perhaps haven't got any of those outputs already.

[00:14:53]So, in summary, it's a big improvement.

[00:14:55]All of the links and things I've included in the previous videos should now work to take you to the latest Winup 2. So, for all future videos, I'll be using this 1.1 production release. So, thanks for watching. If you don't want to miss out on future videos, please hit subscribe. And if you found the content interesting, please hit like. It just helps to make the videos available to more