AVNET Xilinx Virtex-4 SX Evaluation Kit

[banjo]

Hi,

Is any one using the Virtex-4 board from AVNET? Have you figured out how to reprogram the on-board FLASH? The Xilinx eval boards have Compact Flash cards that can be removed for programming. The AVNET board has soldered on FLASH.
My first thought was that this would be done via the serial port with a utility bit file for the FPGA. However, thus far, I have not found any documentation about this.
Any hints on how to do this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

---- Steve

 

[drwho78]

To program the FPGA configuration flash, you will need to do it with the JTAG port via a download cable. The other on-board flash is program thru the FPGA. It is for use by a embedded processor inside the FPGA. Depends on what processor core you use, you can write software to read/program the on-board flash.

 

[banjo]

Thanks for the reply. I believe the board is an FX, not an SX as I mistakenly stated earlier.
I am looking for any reference designs for writing the strata Flash from the FPGA. I do not believe any boot image can fit in the Block Rams. Therefore, the Block Rams can only hold a loader program that copies the Flash into the SDRAM. However, I need an initial loader program for the FPGA to initialize the Flash with the boot image. Once the OS is running, updated boot images can be obtained via the ethernet connection.
Any suggestions on a reference design? Does anyone have Liniux running on the AVNET board?

Thanks.

---- Steve

 

[drwho78]

You can use the JTAG port to program the on-board flash. Check out these articles:

**broken link removed**
**broken link removed**
http://www.intel.com/design/flcomp/applnots/29218602.PDF

You might be able to find some software already written to do this on the web.

 

[BuBEE]

Hi Friend

what code on your Board ?

memec or avnet

 

[banjo]

The evaluation board is from AVNET, as I stated in the title. The board belongs to a friend of mine. He found a short routine that claims to read and write the FLASH in some of the documentation. For now, he is going to try that code. This is a hobby board for him, so development time is limited. Once FLASH and an OS is working, I will try to post some details.

---- Steve