On Jul 18, 5:25 pm, no.s...@gte.net (Scott Gravenhorst) wrote:

> I'm interested in this as well, but I wonder if there is a Macintosh
> solution?  Digilent's free software is for Windows.

You might look at xc3sprog which as an open source jtag loader for
(plain) spartan 3 fpga's under linux.  It should not be hard to port
that to OSX.  You might need to do a little work to get it to
configure a spartan 3AN rather than a plain spartan 3.

Another option might be trying to run either the windows or linux
software in some kind of emulation environment or translation layer
with a hacked up I/O driver.

Using an svf file should be workable, you'd need to make or find an
svf player for OSX and your hardware cable, but I believe the
necessary information and perhaps even source code are published.

Finally you could look at configuring the device in passive serial
mode rather than via jtag, the advantage being that all of the
necessary information to do that is published, because people want to
do it with embedded processors all the time.

You could also install windows on the mac...

On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:20:03 -0700 (PDT), c...@hotmail.com
wrote:

>On Jul 18, 5:25 pm, no.s...@gte.net (Scott Gravenhorst) wrote:
>
>> I'm interested in this as well, but I wonder if there is a Macintosh
>> solution?  Digilent's free software is for Windows.
>
>You might look at xc3sprog which as an open source jtag loader for
>(plain) spartan 3 fpga's under linux.  It should not be hard to port
>that to OSX.  You might need to do a little work to get it to
>configure a spartan 3AN rather than a plain spartan 3.
>
>Another option might be trying to run either the windows or linux
>software in some kind of emulation environment or translation layer
>with a hacked up I/O driver.
>
>Using an svf file should be workable, you'd need to make or find an
>svf player for OSX and your hardware cable, but I believe the
>necessary information and perhaps even source code are published.
>
>Finally you could look at configuring the device in passive serial
>mode rather than via jtag, the advantage being that all of the
>necessary information to do that is published, because people want to
>do it with embedded processors all the time.
>
>You could also install windows on the mac...

Thanks, that's what I figured.  The Mac stuff needs to run as native,
but that's a job for someone else on this project  (c:

On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:28:34 -0400, Rich Webb
<b...@mapson.nozirev.ten> wrote:

>On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 23:57:14 GMT, n...@gte.net (Scott Gravenhorst)
>wrote:
>
>>Thanks again, So I just use the Adept software instead of iMPACT? 
>
>If you use a Digilent USB cable instead of the parallel port, yes. Note
>that they (Digilent) often toss in a parallel-style programming cable
>(the JTAG3) "for free" with their kits and that seems to be good with
>either Xilinx's or Digilent's JTAG device programming software.
>
>>That doesn't sound horribly burdensome.  I'd prefer iMPACT just
>>because it fires up and programs the device automagically if you want,
>>but I could create the .bit file with ISE and send it with Adept - or
>>am I reading this wrong?
>
>IIRC, Adept can use .bit, .jed, .mcs, or .svf device files so it would
>be a two step process (erm, insofar as HDL --> device file could ever be
>considered a single step): create the .bit file then program the device
>with Adept.
>
>-- 
>Rich Webb     Norfolk, VA

Thank you again, that answers all of my questions.  My Spartan-3A DSP
board and the Digilent cable are on their way!  Can't wait, what a
nice (ahem) "toy" - you all know what I mean... (c:

I've just received my Digilent USB-JTAG cable.

Unfortunately, the Adept ExPort software doesn't seem to know about
the Spartan-3A DSP.  I also have a Spartan-3E Starter Kit and using
the same cable, the software finds and properly identifies all 3
devices in the JTAG chain.

When I use it on the -3A DSP board, it reports:

Initializing scan chain...
Found Device.  IDCODE:  03840093
Initialization complete.
   Device 1: UNKNOWN

I've emailed Digilent support, I assume a software change is required.

On Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:01:23 GMT, n...@gte.net (Scott Gravenhorst)
wrote:

>I've just received my Digilent USB-JTAG cable.
>
>Unfortunately, the Adept ExPort software doesn't seem to know about
>the Spartan-3A DSP.  I also have a Spartan-3E Starter Kit and using
>the same cable, the software finds and properly identifies all 3
>devices in the JTAG chain.
>
>When I use it on the -3A DSP board, it reports:
>
>Initializing scan chain...
>Found Device.  IDCODE:  03840093
>Initialization complete.
>   Device 1: UNKNOWN
>
>I've emailed Digilent support, I assume a software change is required.
>

Here is their reply:
====================================================================
Hello Scott,

 

Adept supports the Spartan-3E FPGA's up to 1600k gates, but only
supports Spartan-3A FPGA's up to 1400k gates.  All of the supported
FPGA's under the Adept Suite can be found on our FAQs page here
<http://digilentinc.com/Support/FAQs.cfm?Nav1=Support&Nav2=FAQ>; .

 

Regards,

Dion Moses

Digilent Inc.
=====================================================================

I've asked them if that means they cannot or will not add this device
to their suite, awaiting a response.

The Adept Reference Manual does not indicate that there are size
limitations.  In fact, the reference manual would seem to indicate
that any Xilinx device in the JTAG chain is programmable with Adept.

The link above shows which devices are programmable with Adept version
1.7, however the current software is version 1.10.0.

On Jul 25, 5:22 pm, no.s...@gte.net (Scott Gravenhorst) wrote:

> >I've just received my Digilent USB-JTAG cable.

> Adept supports the Spartan-3E FPGA's up to 1600k gates, but only
> supports Spartan-3A FPGA's up to 1400k gates.

This project claims to be a cable server that will translate between
the digilent USB cable (amongst others) and Xilinx's impact tool.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/xilprg

On Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:43:52 -0700 (PDT), c...@hotmail.com
wrote:

>On Jul 25, 5:22 pm, no.s...@gte.net (Scott Gravenhorst) wrote:
>
>> >I've just received my Digilent USB-JTAG cable.
>
>> Adept supports the Spartan-3E FPGA's up to 1600k gates, but only
>> supports Spartan-3A FPGA's up to 1400k gates.
>
>This project claims to be a cable server that will translate between
>the digilent USB cable (amongst others) and Xilinx's impact tool.
>
>http://sourceforge.net/projects/xilprg

Thanks, I tried both.  cblsrv seems to support only:

                  dlc5     Xilinx Parallel III
                  bb       Altera ByteBlaster

When I try using it with iMPACT, it finds no cable.

cblsrv reports:

Cable is 'Xilinx Parallel III (0x378)'


I also tried xilprg, but the DSP FPGA is not in it's list of supported
devices.

On Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:30:06 GMT, n...@gte.net (Scott Gravenhorst)
wrote:

>On Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:43:52 -0700 (PDT), c...@hotmail.com
>wrote:
>
>>On Jul 25, 5:22 pm, no.s...@gte.net (Scott Gravenhorst) wrote:
>>
>>> >I've just received my Digilent USB-JTAG cable.
>>
>>> Adept supports the Spartan-3E FPGA's up to 1600k gates, but only
>>> supports Spartan-3A FPGA's up to 1400k gates.
>>
>>This project claims to be a cable server that will translate between
>>the digilent USB cable (amongst others) and Xilinx's impact tool.
>>
>>http://sourceforge.net/projects/xilprg
>
>Thanks, I tried both.  cblsrv seems to support only:
>
>                  dlc5     Xilinx Parallel III
>                  bb       Altera ByteBlaster
>
>When I try using it with iMPACT, it finds no cable.
>
>cblsrv reports:
>
>Cable is 'Xilinx Parallel III (0x378)'
>
>
>I also tried xilprg, but the DSP FPGA is not in it's list of supported
>devices.
>

I got a response from sales at Digilent.  It turns out that this
development board is not made by Digilent.  The rep said that they
were working on updating the Adept software to support the FPGA on it,
but it currently does not.  So I seem to be running out of luck unless
I want to buy the expensive Xilinx cable.

On Jul 25, 4:58 pm, no.s...@gte.net (Scott Gravenhorst) wrote:

> I got a response from sales at Digilent.  It turns out that this
> development board is not made by Digilent.  The rep said that they
> were working on updating the Adept software to support the FPGA on it,
> but it currently does not.  So I seem to be running out of luck unless
> I want to buy the expensive Xilinx cable.

Nice to hear that they're working on it.

In the meantime, don't they also sell a parallel-port JTAG adapter
that's (theoretically) compatible with the Xilinx Parallel Cable III?
I bought one a few years back and it worked OK for some things. Fairly
inexpensive if I recall.

Eric

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:57:46 -0700 (PDT), emeb <e...@gmail.com>
wrote:

>On Jul 25, 4:58 pm, no.s...@gte.net (Scott Gravenhorst) wrote:
>
>> I got a response from sales at Digilent.  It turns out that this
>> development board is not made by Digilent.  The rep said that they
>> were working on updating the Adept software to support the FPGA on it,
>> but it currently does not.  So I seem to be running out of luck unless
>> I want to buy the expensive Xilinx cable.
>
>Nice to hear that they're working on it.
>
>In the meantime, don't they also sell a parallel-port JTAG adapter
>that's (theoretically) compatible with the Xilinx Parallel Cable III?
>I bought one a few years back and it worked OK for some things. Fairly
>inexpensive if I recall.
>
>Eric

I think that's a good idea, I believe I've read that iMPACT supports
it.  I don't care about slow if that's it's drawback.  I'm also
waiting for an email from the devboard people at Xilinx regarding what
all of my cable options are.  If they say it will work on that board,
I'll go that route.  This is frustrating, I wanna play with my new
toy.