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USB programming cables

So, having bought the V4FX-12 kit from NuHorizons, it arrived with a parallel-port JTAG cable. Normally I'd be just *fine* with this, but today my new quad-xeon Mac-pro arrives, and I bought that specifically to get some oomph in P&R (running linux using "parallels", of course).

The mac doesn't have a parallel port. Ahhh. Is there a USB programming cable suitable for the FX-12 ? A fallback plan is to do most of the work on the Mac, but have a mini-itx machine next to it just for programming - the itx machine *does* have a // port, but it's woefully underpowered for any serious work on it...

Ideas gratefully received :-)

Simon

Reply to
Simon
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I've been using the Xilinx Platform Cable USB for some time. They now have a second generation out there with lower power *and* is lead free. I only wish I could have multiple USBs connected at once since my Xilinx Spartan3E starter kit board has a "built-in" platform USB cable that just needs a standard USB cable to connect to my system. So nice.

Reply to
John_H

Digilent sells a USB JTAG cable. The downside is it isnt compatible with Xilinx drivers, so you have to download and use the digilent load software. This adds an extra step to the process, although ExPort (the digilent software) will download the BIT file into the FPGA fine, you have to take some additional steps to get an SVF file out of your MCS file for the PROM, the load the PROM from the digilent software from the SVF.

John_H wrote:

Reply to
Paul

Cheers, both :-)

I've ordered one of the Xilinx USB ones. $150 for a cable seems ... overkill ... but I guess it'll work with just about all the devices I use from now on (still waiting for the Darnaw1 :-) Anything for a simple life :-)

Simon.

Reply to
google

I have a open-source cableserver which works with Impact. Today I've just finished to implement the Digilent JTAG-USB support in it. This weekend I will upload the 0.2 version, which will have the digilent support.

The digilent software doesn't support all the Xilinx devices and very slow with Platform Flash.

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Regards,

Zoltan

Paul wrote:

Reply to
zcsizmadia

Did you mean the Tarfessock1?

We have slipped a little due to the amount of customer work that has come in over the summer but will like be available in approximately 3-4 weeks. Our main limitation is the arrival of the cardbus frames and covers which we are waiting for.

Darnaw1 and Craignell1/2 are roughly on the same timescale.

All of these designs are looking very good and I'm pleased with the results that our team of engineers have achieved. Generally everything that we said we were aiming for has been achieved in each of these designs.

John Adair Enterpo> Paul wrote:

Reply to
John Adair

No, I meant the Darnaw1 (S3S1200E module, yes ?) - it's for a different project than the V4FX board :-)

I'm assuming the casual mention of a completely unknown (at least to me, and I can't find it on your site :-) board is a marketing ploy designed to tease out the question: "What is Craignell1 and 2 ?". Ok then [grin], dish!

Simon

Reply to
Simon

Craignell family are are a set of DIL style 5V tolerant modules based on Spartan-3E. Mainly aimed at obsolete component replacement they can also be used for hobby electronics due to their mechanical pitch. I should have said there are actually 3 members of this family to release supporting DIL28, DIL32 and DIL40.

John Adair Enterpo>

Reply to
John Adair

Any info on the Craignell boards would be nice. Will these have built-in platform flash?

Reply to
radarman

They will use SPI prom for loading. The FPGA will be a Spartan-3E in a CP132 package.

John Adair Enterpo>> Craignell family are are a set of DIL style 5V tolerant modules based on

Reply to
John Adair

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