We need to program several thousands Xilinx flashes XCF025... (Data sheet
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They support IEEE 1532. On our board we make JTAG connectors to the flash chip. The flashes will be soldered to board. There are one flash per board. Xilinx offers tools to program XCF... - MultiPRO Desktop Tool (Data sheet
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but it's look like only for Xilinx. At my desk I use Parallel cable, it's too enough (for one PCB :-) ).
Our first target is to program flash. But I would like to have some more universal tool, not only for ISP, but to test our designs (PCBs) too.
We don't know what is better: to program flash chip and then to solder it or to solder it and then program. May be ask Xilinx to program flashes at factory and then solder? Anyway we need to keep the design reconfigurable.
Hi, there are two ways you can go You can look for one a company that does the mass-programming of the chips before soldering. Then equip the pcb, but don't forget to implement a means for updates of the flash rom.
This way you have a fast and economic production chain. BUT!
If your board is more complex and your boardmanufacturer has to run electrical tests anyway then he surely has the equipment to program the flash roms at the end of the test phase.
Conclusion: Provide your pcb with a JTAG connector, and decide which way to go according to the possibilities of your board manufacturer. Since you need to manufacture several thousands of PCBs as well you surely will contact a more powerful facility for that job.
Besides...When the real FPGA bitstream is progammed at the end of testing, you can provide the manufacturer with a special testing bitstream thad accelerates the electrical tests. Talk to the specialists there about their board testing strategy. They should know, otherwise change the manufacturer ;-)
Even if you do program the flash chip before you solder it to the board, you probably want to be able to re-program it in case you discover a bug or come up with a new feature. That's one of the great advantages of (some/most) FPGAs.
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Shure, there is too big volume. Will program at first and then to sold them. I had a hope to grab some tool under this project. Chief have smirked and tell me to use Parallel Cable to my experiments. Bummer. :-)
We have the way to reprogram flash in complete product. Our board contains just couple of chips wich support JTAG. We don't use it.
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