Today I've got a question from a customer.

He wrote:

Hello Manfred,
I am considering buying Vivado. Do you think I need System Edition
version, or Design Edition is enough?

This is a question that goes deeper than it seems at first glance.

You need the system edition when you want to use HLS and/or System Generator for DSP.

If you need to implement DSP functionality, floating point mathematics or such, or if you want to
include Mathlab in your flow, then the System Generator is helpful. I dont use this tool and dont
know much about it.

When you want to describe Algorithms in C, C++ or SystemC instead of VHDL or Verilog then the
HLS option is what you need. I bought it because it can automatically add AXI4 bus interfaces,
standard FIFO interfaces, BLOCKRAM memory interfaces and more to the parameters of your top-function.
With only a few lines of code, you can generate an IP core that can be dropped into your design.
Writing an AXI interface manually would be very painful in comparison.

I bought the "Design Edition" and in addition the "HLS standalone" because the HLS version
that is included in Vivado targets the 7-series devices only (Virtex-7, Kintex-7, Artix-7, Zynq-7000)
but I wanted to target Spartan-6 of the EFM-02. The standalone version can be used with ISE14.7,
the included Version in Vivado can NOT be used with ISE or Planahead.

By the way, I node-locked the licenses to a USB WLAN sticks MAC address.
This way, I can take the license with me when I am out at a customer with my laptop.

I hope this is helpful.
Manfred