How to program FPGA permanently?

Hello,

I have downloaded my program to FPGA and it works as it supposed to do. However, I need to download it every time after I switch power off. Hence I wonder - how to save program on FPGA permanently so that it would work even after power was switched off and on again?

Reply to
Vagant
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Some vendors sell FPGAs which are SRAM-based; these devices lose their configuration when the power goes out. They need to have a separate EEPROM connected to the FPGA. This is usually well-documented in application notes for your particular vendor.

Some vendors sell FPGAs which are SRAM-based but have nonvolatile storage built into the FPGA, so that when the power goes out, they reload the configuration from the onboard NVRAM. These devices are also offered by most vendors.

Actel ships FPGAs which are entirely flash-based; all configuration bits are non-volatile, so they retain their configuration when the power goes out. Actel also ships antifuse-based FPGAs, which are one- time programmable, but won't lose their configuration.

K.

Reply to
Kris Vorwerk

Thank you. My FPGA is XC3S1600E and I will take look in application notes.

Reply to
Vagant

Vagant,

Put the program in a flash memory (non voltatile memory), so that the FPGA programs itself every time it gets turned on (this only takes a few tens of milliseconds, at most).

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The above solution uses the very inexpensive and readily available SPI flash memories, or you may get a Spartan 3AN with the flash and the FPGA in the same package.

Aust> Hello,

Reply to
austin

You mentioned previously that you are using the Spartan 3E 1600E Microblaze Development Kit. The user guide for it is here:

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Take a look at the chapter "FPGA Configuration Options". It describes the various configuration memories that are on the board, and how to put your program into those memories.

If you program one of the configuration memories on the board with your bitfile, and have the jumpers set to use that memory, then your bitfile will be loaded every time you power on the board.

If you changed your startup clock to be the Jtag clock to get rid of the warning you mentioned in your last thread, don't forget to change it back to the CCLK option.

Regards,

John McCaskill

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Reply to
John McCaskill

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