3rd party JTAG cables/controllers for Virtex-4

why.. the xilinx one is cheap enough I have seen alternatives... but they weren't much cheaper

Simon

There are a number of Parallel Cable III look-alikes available including one or two from ourselves. The only thing to watch out for is the minimum voltage than they will run at. If a 2.5V programming voltage only is available some of the 3rd party cables will not operate. Our PROG1 cable will work down to about 2.2V and with mods down to about 1.7V. Our PROG2 cable which is being released with our Raggedstone1 release in a few weeks time with be slightly more restricted and but will operate happily at 2.5V and 3.3V.

John Adair Enterpoint Ltd. - Home of Raggedstone1. The Very Cheap Spartan3 Development Board.

Let me clarify why I am looking for a 3rd party JTAG programming solution. Being relatively new to FPGA design, I am trying to determine if there is a vendor non-specific option available. In other words are there solutions out there that support JTAG programming for Xilinx, Altera, and others?

Thanks, Chris

ahhh.. one of the problems with the concept is the market is too small so it limits the availability. The other is each company has its downloader program... part of the IDE so you really need to integrate to that. Most of the JTAG money is spent on production test which tends not to focus on this market.

There are a few hobby versions the price is sharp but the support is based upon what they want to use.

I think the integration factor tends to make the vendor specific versions a little more friendly. If you shop around, you can sometimes get a demo board that comes with a programmer ... I got a free-bee parallel Altera one doing just that.

Simon