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Programming the ARM7 used to download our Xilinx FPGA

Ok, this doesn't have much to do with fpga's, but I need some help and you guys are a great knowledge base.

In all our designs we use an ARM7 microcontroller, a flash, and a FPGA. The ARM powers up and downloads the fpga and we are "up". We have been using a Macraigor "Wiggler" to initially program the flash, or to re-program the flash after we screw up programming and kill the boot sector. Recently we upgraded the Wiggler code (without backing up our system - really stupid!) and since then, we have not been able to program the flash on a couple of our products while our other products seem to program just fine. We have sent boards to Macraigor and have asked for old code to see if we could at least get back to where we were, but they have been very unresponsive and say they don't even keep copies of microcode that's over a couple years old. So anyway, is there a wiggler clone out there somewhere that we could buy and get on with life? We are tired of fighting with Macraigor and more tired of not being able to reliably program our products.

Thanks

Dan

Reply to
Dan K
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just use openocd

Antti

Reply to
Antti

We recently got some of these:

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Work fine under Windows and Linux, are quite cheap (we paid ~60EUR) and fast. No problems so far with these.

They have a Wiggler clone as well:

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HTH, Sean

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Reply to
Sean Durkin

This is obvious in hindsight, but just for the record...

When you "release" hardware or software/firmware, it's a good idea to package up all the design files, software, whatever into a nice neat archive bundle. That also includes the tools and libraries that you used. If you are really paranoid, that also includes the OS and such.

I'm somewhat surprised you couldn't find a copy of what you need in your backups. You do have backups, right? Many sites store an occasional backup (monthly) off site in case the building burns down. Once you are doing that, it's pretty easy to keep a few extra months in case you can't read the media and/or backups from a year ago in case you really really need something like this.

It's also worth testing your archive/backup plan. Take a new box and load the software and see if it all works. (Make sure it isn't peeking at some file server.)

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Reply to
Hal Murray

Use Amontec JTAGkey + SVF Player for downloading your FPGA code when prototyping (suppoerted FPGA are Altera Lattice Xilinx ...) Use Amontec JTAGkey + OpenOCD for downloading and debugging your ARM.

Amontec JTAGkey is supporting :

- ARM7 / ARM9 debuggging, programming, flashing

- FPGA / CPLD erasing, programming, checking

more from

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Laurent

Reply to
Amontec, Larry

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