Designing a simple FPGA board

Hi all,

Is it possible to program a FPGA using Xilinx parallel download cable by simply connecting it’s to appropriate pins of FPGA? So that the program is loaded as long as long power in on, and so there is no need of external eeprom(I think so)! Of course there will be a 50Mhz crystal and a 3.3v supply. Here is where the confusion starts, there are two headers in the download cable, one is JTAG and the other is FPGA header, in some design I saw only JTAG header were used and in other both of then were used. So should I connect both of then or JTAG only? And will I need to switch the 3.3v supply while the device is being programmed? What else I will need? I’m willing to design a SpartanXL XCS05 board which comes in 84pin PLCC package, so thinks are easy because I cannot handle PQFP and TQFP :-(

Any suggestion is highly appreciated

Thanks in advance

Have you ever tried searching google for examples.

I am sure you can find out more about JTAG and other spartan development board. I have use a coolrunner but I don't recall using the FPGA header but the JTAG header and of course you need the power on for the FPGA. The JTAG were accessed by connecting a wrie with a molex header (female) and this connected to the male molex on the board, and this in turn is connected to the JTAG pins of the coolrunner.

I shouldn't have said a molex header, I meant six for the JTAG pins.

Can you please give me the schematic?

Thanks

You connect the JTAG pins of the Spartan to the JTAG pins of the cable. I am just suggesting using molex headers on the board and connect it to the JTAG pins of the Spartan. Using the other mate, connect it to the JTAG header of the cable. I am sure you can use your imagination. Try looking Radioshack for connectors that will fit the header. I imagine you are using the parallel cable IV, well if you read the datasheet for the cable you can use it to program a PROM using the serial. That would be another way of programming the Spartan.

Take a look at the datasheet.

/Attachments deleted. Take them from the post below.(klug)/

http://old.iot.dk/jjm/adsen/XiLinx/Spartan2_kit/Spartan-II%20User's%20Guide.pdf
**broken link removed**
http://focus.ti.com/lit/an/slva159a/slva159a.pdf

Company called ALTIUM advertises a development kit:

www.altium.com/livedesignkit

that includes a board for Altera Cyclone or Xilinx Spartan FPGA.

Yes alrite @LITUM is a nice company.. it advertises for development kits.. they have their own collection of softwares which are very comprahensive.. u can order a evaluation pack of these EDA tools which comes a s bundle..

u can try the nanoboard.. coz we plan to get the evaluation board for our university..


Take a look at this

h**p://www.nuhorizons.com/services/development/amirix/

the above link is for virtex II PCI Platform .. has the detailed block diagram.

with regards,

Hello

Current XILINX FPGAs have two programming headers. A JTAG header and an FPGA header which is also called serial mode header. The same parallel cable ( Xilinx parallel cable III or IV ) can be used to program the fpga using the jtga or serial header. Each headre has 6 pins when using xilinx parallel cable III.

You can use only one at a time. Jtag mode is a little faster than parallel mode. Also if you are using on chip instrumentation as which Chipscope pro you need jtag header. Otherwise you can use either. The only difference is when you select the download mode in iMpact either Jtag or slave serial.

You can make a xilinx parallel cable III yourself. Its easy and I have done it my self. All the schematics are availble here at EDA board.

I would check IanP suggestion,I don't think you can beat the price for what you get