I want to buy a Papilio Pro. For programming this FPGA, I need a cable. I can use a Xilinx programming cable or others cable which are cheaper like this cable.
I suppose with Xilinx programming cable, I can use Xilinx programmer kit. It is possible to use it with a cheaper cable ? What can I do with a Xilinx programming cable which i can't do with a standard cable ? It is illegal to use Xilinx programmer kit with a cable which is not a Xilinx official cable ?
You do not need a programming cable to program the Papilio Pro board. It includes onboard USB -> JTAG functionality. All you need is a usb type-a to mini usb cable and the Papilio Loader program.
That said the following Xilinx tools depend on a supported JTAG cable connection:
1. Impact: Programming, FPGA status, and readback.
2. Chipscope: internal logic analyzer and basic gpio controller operation
3. SDK: debugging and programming functionality only
For these the aforementioned Digilent programming cables (such as the HS3) are a good option that is cheaper than the Xilinx cable.
You can probably do without Impact fairly easily but you will miss the Chipscope functionality if you are doing any significant logic debugging and the use of the SDK debugger if you are doing significant software development/debugging using the microblaze processor.
I believe Chipscope requires a non-free license.
I got a Papilio/Pro, it doesn't have { R8, R10, R11 } resistors X____X
which means the FTDI2232 chip is NOT connected to the fpga's jtag port
Related
I have to program the FPGA using bootloader over ethernet connection.
My questions is that do I need to remove the inputs from the FPGA while programming its flash.
Regards
Uzmeed
I use the following Ethernet FPGA cores with necessary Ethernet functionality, flash programmer and more.
These cores supports this remote programming tool. The core works great and are very easy to use. Free to download.
Is the flash external or internal to FPGA? If the flash is external, most likely FPGA will have dedicated serial configuration interface. Now really depending on the sensitivity of other I/O and the speeds you are operating, if the board isn't designed right, fast edge rates on SPI interface can inject noise into other I/O channels(For example if there is an analog data line close by which is monitored through an ADC by FPGA). Highly unlikely that any of these will "damage" your FPGA, but if you care about data integrity on these I/O lines, even during flash is programmed, then that could be impacted. If this is an internal flash, obviously none of these would be an issue.
I'm new to fpga programming, and I'm wondering how to make my fpga design distributable. Here's the scenario I have in mind. I have a network of computers, each deployed with an fpga based peripheral. I want to update the fpga design on the peripherals periodically. How do I accomplish this without spending a fortune on software licenses?
I have a small dev kit for an fpga that shipped with an executable to load example design files (it was an Altera fpga FYI). Does anyone know how I would create such an executable?
Some specifics:
My fpgas are Xilinx Spartan 6Es. I'm using Xilinx ISE for fpga development. The host computers are running debian linux.
Thanks for any and all advice!
If youre dealing with Altera: one computer would have the software tools and licenses needed to synthesize the project. Assuming all the FPGAs are the same model on each station/node, Quartus will generate an .sof file which you can copy and open from station to station. All you would need to do is download the Altera programmer tool (I believe you can download it separately from Quartus II) on each station which is free. Then upload the .sof to the board using the programmer, where you can permanently store it on the fpga prom using a technique similar to the following:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrMe8JS7Ktk
However if you have Xilinx and Altera mix, Xilinx has .bit/xdl files, and uses another tool (impact) to upload their bitstreams. They can't be converted to and from bit and sof. So it's recommended that you probably stick to one make (Xilinx or Altera) and model based on your plans.
It looks like what you are looking for is how to make your FPGA's field upgradable. Assuming your FPGA is loading from an external memory such as an SPI flash chip, then you need to modify your design so that it is capable of writing to the SPI chip (or whatever) itself. This is most simply done by putting a register in your design which maps to the individual pins on the flash chip, and then "bit bang" the register from a connected computer. Assuming your FPGAs feed data into your own software running on the computer, then you would modify this software to have the functionality of manipulating this register to reflash the flash device. Obviously, if this goes wrong you bricked your device until it can be flashed again with the JTAG, but it provides a way for all the devices to get updated in the systems they operate without needing to buy a JTAG cable for every single station.
If you have Ethernet on your board you can use the remote programming tool from fpga-cores.
Then you can remote login to the network and program the FPGAs or mail the new config file to you customer and they run the programmer. This is how we remotely updates our boards.
Spartan 6 is supported. As a bonus you can also do some remote debugging with the remote logic analyzer.
Everything is free for non commercial use.
I noticed that the PCI bus has the JTAG wires (i.e. TCK TDI TDO etc.): is there any way to use that JTAG for re-programming an fpga based PCIe device? (supposing that the fpga's JTAG is connected to the PCI wires).
thanks
Michele
EDIT: since I see a -1, maybe I couldn't make myself understood... I'm going to try to better explain the situation. We have a Terasic DE5 (Stratix V FPGA) PCIe board, which actually has the JTAG "wires" of the PCIe bus routed to the FPGA. It's true that there is a JTAG port soldered on the board, but for mechanical reasons is hard to reach and use.
So my question is: is it possible to use the PCI pins to programm the FPGA as we can do with the BLASTER? if so, what's the linux infrastructure to support the PCIe JTAG programming? If there's no chance, could someone explain me why?
I've never come across any motherboard which allows the host processor access to the JTAG on the PCI slots. It's there (as I understand it) for manufacturers to use in end-of-line test kit.
I guess you might find some JTAG pins on a header somewhere. Again, I've never come across any motherboard with that documented for end users.
I've looked at the JTAG connections you describe but found no way to use them. These connections seem to be only useful for manufacturing test of a motherboard with FPGA board attached. That is the purpose for which JTAG (boundary scan) was original designed.
Here are two alternatives to what you propose:
Send new bitstreams over PCIe, write them to the boot flash. Reset the FPGA to load the new design. On some machines, you can reset the FPGA without rebooting by requesting Linux to rescan the device.
Send new bitstream over PCIe, and use partial reconfiguration to load the changed part of the design. This requires an additional license from Altera.
Is there a way to program (flash) bare (not already flashed with a bootloader) pic32 chips without using a pickit-type programmer?
Are there any ongoing projects for JTAG, for example?
Suggest you refer to the Microchip PIC32 family programming documentation here.
According to it:
33.2.1.3 DEVICE PROGRAMMING USING THE JTAG INTERFACE
The JTAG interface can also be used to program PIC32 devices in their target
applications. The JTAG interface allows application designers to
include a dedicated test and programming port into their applications,
with a single 4-pin interface, without imposing the circuit
constraints that the ICSP interface may require.
So according to the documentation, you have an alternative to the standard Microchip ISP.
Presently JTAG cannot be used for programming (flash programming)DSPIC32 series.The same information is mentioned in the datasheet.
My company is trying to build a pcb with an obsolete xilinx fpga (XC3042A) which is part of the XC3000 series chips. Does anyone have any experience programming the data to the chip? I'm looking for what software, hardware, etc. people have used.
I have programmed old Xilinx chips (XC4010XL) using a custom built interface to the ISA bus.
I used Turbo-C on a DOS box and a home-made ISA card with '245 (bidir transceiver) and a 74LS74 (dual flip flop D) for strobe signals on a slave parallel configuration.
It is not difficult to implement the same using a parallel port, for instance.
You should be able to find the programming specs from the Xilinx website. They provide documentation on the different methods used in programming their FPGA. It should be in their AppNotes. They have several modes - typically slave serial or select map (parallel). That means some sort of SPI flash, or parallel flash, or JTAG.
If you look around, you may find schematics for a DIY programming cable too! You can also interface a small micro, say a 8-bit PIC to handle the programming specs while you design your own custom interface to it or interface it to a SD card or something else.
The current Xilinx tools and cables will program old parts.
The XC3000 series does not use the JTAG interface, so you can not use the Xilinx programmer to download your configuration.
You can do so by either using an external EPROM or an embedded processor to download the code.
Take a look at this applications note from Xilinx:
http://www.xilinx.com/support/documentation/application_notes/xapp090.pdf
For daisy chain:
http://www.xilinx.com/support/documentation/application_notes/xapp091.pdf
It describes the data format as well as signal info for downloading the configuration file to the FPGA.
You can use older version of the Xilinx programmer from their web site and configure the devices, I believe the last version of the xilinx supporting the 3000 series was version 8 but I am not sure.
Check out FTDI. You might be able to convince them to go with some updated hardware. It's currently $150 CAD for USB + FPGA, and $80 CAD extra if you bundle it with a Manual. Plus shipping.
It even supports the free web kit available from the Xilinx website.