Spartan 3 StarterKit Weirdness

Aug 08, 2006 3 Replies
D

I'm experiencing something strange with my Spartan 3 starter kit. It seems that when I download a bitstream via jtag directly, things don't always work the way they should. However, when I generate a mcs/prm file, then burn that prom file to the onboard prom via jtag + boot the fpga via that, it works perfectly! I've seen this behavior on multiple different designs... no common attribute as to when it happens + when it doesnt. I've tried forcing it to verify, but I've never once had that succeed, so I don't know if the verify functionality even works.



Has anyone seen this before, and if so, any ideas about a solution?


Cheers,


--David Carne


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J

I didn't see the verify work and I haven't gone back to see if it could. The several times I've reprogrammed, the direct JTAG works fine; I've only programmed the flash load once or twice since direct seems to work. I do recall some DCM lock problems that *shouldn't* have been there as far as I could tell (and DCM reset didn't help) but I was actively changing the design and a next load usually took care of it. Rapid development masks bugs?

- John_H

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B

Try chang> I do recall some DCM lock problems that *shouldn't* have been there

My S3 board with ES silicon also exhibits SSO inspired DCM unlocks even when well within the revised^N S3 SSO guidelines.

LOC'ing the DCM's to the other side of the chip 'fixed' it, but I never had the time to probe further:

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Brian

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M

I've also seen this happen - not downloading correctly, a second download then works OK. Happenned sufficiently infrequently to not bother investigating further. Note that verify will always fail when downloading via JTAG - this only works when programming the flash.

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