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"HOW DO I PROGRAM RAGGEDSTONE1" - Raggedstone1 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 Raggedstone1 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 small designs. 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.
"CAN I PROGRAM THE BOARD FROM PCI" - Yes Raggedstone1 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 Q1/2006 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. JT1 is a test point on "PROGB" and offers easy access to the signal. JT1 is located between the 2 platform flash sites at the top left, front side, of the card. Take a wire connected to one of the ground pins (3 pin headers - pin3) 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" - Raggedstone1 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 Raggedstone1" - 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 Raggedstone1 STAND-ALONE" - Yes by using the optional PCI I/O Expansion Header you can operate the board stand-alone on a single 5V power supply I/P (2.1 mm jack).
"WHAT SPARTAN-3 IS FITTED TO Raggedstone1" - A XC3S400-4FG456C is fitted to Raggedstone1.
"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.
"WHAT OSCILLATOR DO I USE IN THE 8 PIN DIL SOCKET" - The 8 pin DIL socket takes 3.3V oscillators in 8 pin outline (normally 4 pins, sometimes called half size), We have also found that many 5V oscillators will operate, at 3.3V supply, in the socket without issue. The choice of frequency is usually determined by application but for hobbiest and student using oscillators in the range 25Mhz to 50Mhz are a good choice as designs are generally easy to meet timing but are sufficiently high enough in frequency to operate with the Spartan-3 DCMs. Enterpoint will be making a range of 3.3V oscillators available shortly to ease the sourcing of these components.
"MY PC WON'T BOOT WITH RAGGEDSTONE1 FITTED" - Check that the card is inserted the correct way. It is possible to insert Raggedstone1 into a standard PCI socket 4 ways. Only one way is correct. The user manual will be up-rated shortly to include a photo to show correct insertion into a motherboard. Meanwhile the user manual for sister product MINI-CAN shows correct insertion for that card and can be used as a reference.
"MY PC WON'T BOOT WITH RAGGEDSTONE1 FITTED" - Check that your design PCI core is correct in function and also in pinout.
"IS RAGGEDSTONE1 AVAILABLE WITH XC3S1000, XC3S1500, XC3S2000 FITTED" - Raggestone1 can support these sizes of Spartan-3 in the FG456 package. However RS1-1000, RS1-1500, RS1-2000 are only available under special circumstances. Generally they are not a stock item and subject to lead times and additional costs. We can make them available for: (1) College/University purchasers of lab package deals. (2) Strategic customers buying other Enterpoint higher value products such as IP and/or for higher volume orders of Raggedstone1(25+ off orders). If your project meets these requirements please contact our board sales department for a quote.
"IS XAPP684 SUPPORTED" - We have added an optional resistor site to connect one of the LHS DIL signals to drive CCLK in revision 1.1 of Raggedstone1. Revision 1.1 has been shipping since December 2005.~~~1697~1739~~