Jam Bytecode Player

  The task is to boot the Cyclone FPGA from CPU. The standard way for 
doing that is Jam Bytecode Player available from Altera. It is workable, 
however for the good variety of reasons, this JBC player is PITA.
  It seems possible to take the player output as a bit stream, pack it 
into a binary image and boot the FPGA by bit-banging from this image. 
The idea looks pretty obvious, and not difficult to implement. I am 
wondering if somebody does it that way, or what could be the reasons for 
not doing it.

* Are there standard tools to convert JBC to binary bit-banging image?

* Did anyone try loading Altera FPGAs by binary bit banging rather then 
using JBC player?

* What could be the pitfalls of the "binary" solution?


Vladimir Vassilevsky
DSP and Mixed Signal Design Consultant
http://www.abvolt.com

On 23 Nov, 00:04, Vladimir Vassilevsky <nos...@nowhere.com> wrote:
> =A0 The task is to boot the Cyclone FPGA from CPU. The standard way for
> doing that is Jam Bytecode Player available from Altera. It is workable,
> however for the good variety of reasons, this JBC player is PITA.
> =A0 It seems possible to take the player output as a bit stream, pack it
> into a binary image and boot the FPGA by bit-banging from this image.
> The idea looks pretty obvious, and not difficult to implement. I am
> wondering if somebody does it that way, or what could be the reasons for
> not doing it.
>
> * Are there standard tools to convert JBC to binary bit-banging image?
>
> * Did anyone try loading Altera FPGAs by binary bit banging rather then
> using JBC player?
>
> * What could be the pitfalls of the "binary" solution?
>
> Vladimir Vassilevsky
> DSP and Mixed Signal Design Consultanthttp://www.abvolt.com

JAM or STAPL (i forget which) is intelligent and will poll flash
sectors for erase/program success, ideal for processor upgrade of
CPLDs. You don't need this. You could bit bang the JTAG or programming
pins, we do both. If it's entirely embedded we use the programming
pins, if we need the flexibility of remote upgrade/programming of
daughter cards we tend to send JTAG up the connectors.

Colin