Spartan3A - internal flash configuration or not?

Question

hithe features of S3A are so close to S3E that it makes one think - why?Why release a device that is so similar?I think I have maybe guessed the answer to this - S3A do have internalflash configuration ! That would explain it. It would also correlate tosome announcments made 6 months ago about "spartan3 with flash".I hope I am guessing correctly!:)Hm if I think more, this would also explain why I initially assumed S3Adoesnt support SPI loading - it has internal flash!I wonder if the internal flash is rewriteable from FPGA logic? If it isnot then Xilinx is still behing Lattice, as Lattice XP2 FPGAs do allowthe onchip flash access from user logic (ASFAIK).Antti

pbdelete · Accepted Answer

What load modes does it support?This would (hopefully) save pcb space..Now a fpga that will reprogram itself would be something ;)

Nico Coesel · Answer

Got any links where there is more information? An S3 with internal flash + copy protection is something I could use in a design which needs some work on the PCB anyway...

Antti · Answer

[snip]sorry - no links, nothing confirmative :(just thinking about why? and piece of unverified gossip.Well we have to wait. If there is no flash in Spartan-3Athen it really makes me wonder why make it at all?Is it really only because additional power saving modes?sound unlikely, but you never know what considerationare driving the Spartan-3A development.hmm, it has ICAP added, so this maybe used to accessthe internal flash, no extra interface needed.Antti

Jim Granville · Answer

Didn't Actel do a low power mode respin, but then they made a larger name change for that!

Xilinx will do what they can, with least effort. To copy lattice would need a new die design, "3A" is more likely to be a dual-die variant. [Like Atmel did with (IIRC) AT94S ? - their fading dual die FpSLIC ]

-jg

Spartan3A - internal flash configuration or not?

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