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Hollybush1
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"HOW DO I PROGRAM HOLLYBUSH1" - Hollybush1 is programmed used a JTAG cable
such as our Prog2 cable or Xilinx Parallel Cable IV cable. There is a 14 pin header (2mm) on
Hollybush1 for a JTAG
cable/programmer. These cables usually plug into a PC parallel port,
(USB cable also available), and using Xilinx Impact software the
Spartan-3 FPGA, or the Platform Flash, can be programmed from
appropriate data output from the ISE toolset.
"WHAT TOOLS DO I NEED TO USE TO GENERATE DESIGNS AND PROGRAM THE BOARD" - Xilinx ISE Webpack is free and contains all the basic tools you need to develop designs up to the XC3S1500. It is available from Xilinx here http://www.xilinx.com/products/design_resources/design_tool/index.htm . We don't ship it with our card because of licensing issues. For XC3S2000 versions you will need the full ISE Foundation tool.
"CAN I PROGRAM THE BOARD FROM PCI" - Yes Hollybush1 has direct connections from the Spartan-3 to TCK, TMS, TDI and TDO. PC GUI support and JTAG IP products will be available hopefully by the end of Q2/2006 to allow you to use this feature. To use this all designs will need to contain the IP to drive the JTAG lines correctly. If the IP is missing or does not work you will need to use the PROG2 cable to reprogram the board.
"My JTAG cable programming did work but does not work now" - If you build a design with pins that are not "locked" to particular I/Os then often the ISE tools have a habit of probably placing them on one of the JTAG lines. If this happens the symptom is trouble free JTAG program cycle then followed by inability to access by JTAG properly (various errors). Avoidance methods - (1) use the JTAG lines as inputs on a dummy function and assign pins. (2) Use "prohibit" pin constraints in the Xilinx contraints file. (3) Assign all pins in your design. Recovery - If this happens do not dispair there is a way back. If FPGA signal "PROGB" is held low whilst you operate the JTAG you can reprogram, or erase, the configuration flash to remove the offending design. JT2 is a test point on "PROGB" and offers easy access to the signal. JT2 is located near the 2 platform flash sites and sits in the middle of 3 test points JT1,JT2,JT3. Take a wire connected to one of the ground pins (JL3 second pin down from top and every second pin down thereafter) via a 100 ohm resistor to JT1. Hold on for the whole of the erase/re-program cycle.
"WHERE DO I GET A SOFTWARE DRIVER" - Hollybush1 has been pinned out to use our PCI core (available shortly) but does also work with Xilinx PCI Core (additional purchase). A driver for our PCI core will be made available with our core. Jungo produces drivers for XP, WIN2K, Linux for the Xilinx PCI Core. You are also free to use other PCI Cores although we have not used any other products and subsequently can't offer support on them.
"CAN I USE DMA WITH THIS BOARD" - If the PCI Core that you use does then yes. Full functionality for INITIATOR functions is supported by the Xilinx PCI Core.
"WHAT VERSION OF PCI IS SUPPORTED BY Hollybush1" - That depends on the PCI Core that you select for your FPGA design. The Xilinx PCI Core is at version 3.0 of the PCI specification. Technically the bus switches used to protect the Spartan-3 for 5V PCI make the electrical interface non-compliant but we have never seen any problems under our testing, or had any reports from customers, in any of our products using this arrangement.
"CAN I USE Hollybush1 STAND-ALONE" - Yes by using a connector to plug into the PC104+ connector top you can power the board. We will be looking at making an equivalent of our PCI I/O Header for this board.
"WHAT SPARTAN-3 IS FITTED TO Hollybush1" - A single XC3S400/1000/1500/2000 is fitted to Hollybush1.
"CAN I HAVE AN I/O VOLTAGE OTHER THAN 3.3V" - We support 2.5V, or 3.3V, operation on 4 banks of the FPGA by jumper selection. You can also feed in your own supply on these jumpers for our values. The other 4 banks are fixed at input 3.3V supply. Our Broaddown2 product offers a broader choice of Vccio voltages if you need that kind of function.
"MY PC WON'T BOOT WITH HOLLYBUSH1 FITTED" - Check that the card is inserted the correct way.
"MY PC WON'T BOOT WITH HOLLYBUSH1 FITTED" - Check that your design PCI core is correct in function and also in pinout.
"WHERE DOES THE NAME HOLLYBUSH1 COME FROM" - Most of our current product names come from the local chain of hills - Raggedstone, Broaddown, Hollybush, Swinyard are all local hill names used as product names.