Hi,Has anyone had any success in programming a Xilinx XCF using C code in aMicroBlaze over the JTAG ports?Any information appreciated.Thanks!

Not exactly, but some closely related things, such as programming FPGAand config flashes whose JTAG signals have been connected to GPIO pinsof ordinary (hardware) microcontrollers.I don't think you'll be able to program the config flash by drivingthe FPGA's jtag pins, so you would need some seperate connections fromordinary I/O pins.Once your microblaze can twiddle the config flash's jtag signals, youhave a software problem. My preferences has been to make the embeddeddevice behave like a jtag cable with some macro commands and act as aproxy for a program running on a PC. You could of course embed thewhole thing, but that means putting the algorithm and the data intothe embedded processor. Your microblaze system may have the resourcesfor that, my embedded targets don't, so I use a much smaller block ofcode that acts as a proxy.

Programming XCF from MicroBlaze over JTAG???

Mar 14, 2007 25 Replies

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Petter Gustad 19 years ago

Not the XCF (haven't tried yet), but I've made a JTAG programmer which I have used to program 18V04's and several Xilinx and Altera PLD's/FPGA's.

I don't use XSVF but plain SVF. I've made several versions of the programmer. One variant program over PCI, another over USB, one over the a serial port and a couple over Ethernet. One of the latter used an Altera NIOS.

I can compress the programming data, but this require more resources in terms of CPU, gates or LUT's when you want to program. If you have a lot of space available (e.g. a CF type device) you can use a very simple device to drive the JTAG signals.

Petter

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?

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dscolson 19 years ago

Actually I did with a PicoBlaze for an XCF02. Really didn't take too long once I figured out what to do. Basically I used the ieee1532 and the JTAG 1149 spec as guide.

Dave

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zcsizmadia 19 years ago

Yes, without xsvf player. We have very limited resources in our uC, so I have to program the XCF page by page (512 bytes). I've just wrote the code to implement the JTAG programming protocol to program one page on XCF and then stream the mcs file page by page to the uC and it programs the flash.

You can find some open-source xcf programming tools using the parallel port pins to program a xcf device like a JTAG programmer. You can strip down those tools to the bare minimum. You can find a conservative JTAG clock freq, so you should'nt worry about timing.

Zoltan

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Bob Golenda 19 years ago

Hi Zoltan,

Youi've done exactly what? Written a stand alone JTAG programmer that programs the XCF part without using any XSVF files or XSVFPlayer etc. stuff?

Sure, but it's knowing what you need to do, and the timing that is the hardest part, since there is no spec for programming the XCF.

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Bob Golenda 19 years ago

stuff?

Hi Zoltan,

Glad to hear you have actually done it.

The timing I was referring to is not the JTAG TCK frequency, but the programming timing info.

Thanks for the info!

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Bob Golenda 19 years ago

Hi Zoltan,

I was hardly "whining", just trying to find out what the reality was. People can say how to do something all they want, but actually doing it is entirely different. And, the difference between an XSVF player and a real JTAG programmer is substantial.

I'll take a look at what you posted, thank you.

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