When I run MAP on my Virtex-4 design that implemented successfully in 8.1i with SP1, it crashes right after "Mapping Design Into LUTs..." appears in the console.
This problem is related to a new warning message regarding FIFO16 usage that was introduced in 8.1i SP2. This issue has been fixed in ISE 8.1i SP3. For earlier versions of ISE. this error can be avoided by setting the environment variable:
Linux and Solaris
setenv XIL_MAP_DONT_WARN_FIFO_CORES 1
Windows
SET XIL_MAP_DONT_WARN_FIFO_CORES =1
Also see (Xilinx Answer 22462), which has the same FIFO16 information as the failing MAP warning.
For general information about setting ISE environment variables, see (Xilinx Answer 11630).