FPGA design Flow :

1)Architecturedesign.Thisstageinvolvesanalysisoftheproject
requirements,problemdecompositionandfunctionalsimulation(if
applicable).Theoutputofthisstageisadocumentwhichdescribesthe
futuredevicearchitecture,structuralblocks,theirfunctionsandinterfaces.

2)HDLdesignentry.Thedeviceisdescribedinaformalhardware
descriptionlanguage(HDL).ThemostcommonHDLsareVHDLand
Verilog.

3)Testenvironmentdesign.Thisstageinvolveswritingoftest
environmentsandbehavioralmodels(whenapplicable).Theyarelater
usedtoensurethattheHDLdescriptionofadeviceiscorrect.

4)Behavioralsimulation.ThisisanimportantstagethatchecksHDL
correctnessbycomparingoutputsoftheHDLmodelandthebehavioral
model(beingputinthesameconditions).

5)Synthesis.ThisstageinvolvesconversionofanHDLdescriptiontoa
socallednetlistwhichisbasicallyaformallywrittendigitalcircuit
schematic.Synthesisisperformedbyaspecialsoftwarecalled
synthesizer.ForanHDLcodethatiscorrectlywrittenandsimulated,
synthesisshouldn'tbeanyproblem.However,synthesiscanrevealsome
problemsandpotentialerrorsthatcan'tbefoundusingbehavioral
simulation,so,anFPGAengineershouldpayattentiontowarningsproducedbythesynthesizer.

6)Implementation.Asynthesizergeneratednetlistismappedontoparticulardevice'sinternalstructure.Themain
phaseoftheimplementationstageisplaceandrouteorlayout,whichallocatesFPGAresources(suchaslogic
cellsandconnectionwires).Thentheseconfigurationdataarewrittentoaspecialfilebyaprogramcalledbitstream
generator.
7)Timinganalysis.Duringthetiminganalysisspecialsoftwarecheckswhethertheimplementeddesignsatisfies
timingconstraints(suchasclockfrequency)specifiedbytheuser.

Readmore:http://www.fpgacentral.com/docs/fpgatutorial/fpgadesignflowoverview#ixzz2XoZeTUxI

Xilinx ISE installation:

1)Registeratxilinxwebsitehttp://www.xilinx.com

2)Downloadaversionthatsupportsyouroperatingsystem:
http://www.xilinx.com/support/download/index.html/content/xilinx/en/downloadNav/designtools.ht
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3)Obtainalicence,itwillbesenttoyouremail
https://xilinx.entitlenow.com/AcrossUser/main.gsp?licenseType=&product=&tab=CreateLicense&
4)Followthedocumentdownloadedwiththetooltoinstallaccordingtoyouroperatingsystem.

5)DuringinstallationselecttoinstallISE:webpack(becauseitlicenceisfree)

6)whenaskedforthelicence,pointtoyourdownloadedlicencefile

7)Settheenvironmentalvariables:thisisbestexplainedinthisdocument:

http://www.xilinx.com/support/documentation/sw_manuals/xilinx13_1/iil.pdf

Moreillustrativedocument(FollowtheEE101studentspath):
http://wwwclasses.usc.edu/engr/ees/201/Spring2012/ISE/ISE_13.2_Installation_steps_USC.pdf