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How to debug an FPGA board

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walker_iit

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Hello all,


i m a newbie to FPGA world, and i m currently trying to debug an FPGA board made by my company. The details are as follows.
Its has a Cyclone 4 :EP4CE10E22C8N FPGA, a SPI Flash, and user LEDs, DIP switches and push button switches. Programming is through a USB-- JTAG conversion chip (FT2232H)which is directly connected to the JTAG pins of the FPGA. Currently , the FPGA is programmable using "urJTAG", but even a simple program to light an LED is not working once the code is programmed. I need a start as to how to debug this board. Are there JTAG debugging tools available (free), and what is the additional hardware i require to do a debugging of my board.? Will Boundary Scanning be of help, or should i physically start to check all the connections for stuck at 0s or 1s.?
Thanks in advance
Walker
 

Hi,

Why don't you use Quartus to program your FPGA ???

Franck.
 

I would check the JTAG chain first and make sure it works. If the FPGA is found in the chain, program the FPGA and check if any error occurs during the programming. Then, check if FPGA is configured correctly by monitoring init anad done signals. Then, check for pinout and application debugging...
 
because, it is a custom built board, and from what i ve understood quartus uses USB blaster which makes use of a MAX CPLD programmed with JTAG conversion code and device id to program the svf into the FPGA(Correct me if i m wrong). Hence in the board that i m using, a third party software called UrJTAG is used instead of quartus.

Regards
Walker
 

Hi,

If you want to debug he board using Signal Tap you'll have to use Quartus and an USB-Blaster. If you have access to the JTAG pins there is no difference using it or your JTAG hardware + UrJTAG.

Franck.
 

If the FPGA is in the JTAG chain then you should easily be able to use signal tap to interface to your running FPGA. The Max CPLD will just be providing the access to the flash for the configuration space. The jtag should allow direct access to the Cyclone.
 

First check if your FPGA done signal is ready. Don't go for checking the output LEDs at the first glance. Usually all FPGA designs will have a done LED connected nearby the FPGA chip on PCB. Just check for the LED status as gongdori said. this will confirm you if your FPGA is powered up properly and programed without errors. Can you elaborate how you are programing?. Using USB-blaster?. Are you still able to use altera blaster for your USB-JTAG chip?. I wonder if altera drivers support that.....
 

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