Programming the FPGA

Current Guide to Flashing the Final Production FPGAs

Physical Setup

• Use the red Xilinx USB cable box to connect the digital control board to the computer
• When the Xilinx USB cable box is powered and the control board is off the orange light on the cable box should be orange
• When the Xilinx USB cable box and the control board are powered the light on the cable box should be green and ready for programming

Xilinx Software

We use the Xilinx Webpack (free) license. The program and license for tagger-station can be found in /nfs/direct/packages/xilinx.

Flashing the Program

1. Open the Project Navigator
   1. On Hermes (as of 1/2014) Start->All Programs->Xilinx Design Tools->ISE Design Tools->64-bit Project Navigator
2. If the project doesn't load automatically, load the project file Device.xise
   1. Once loaded the top left window should show the hierarchy with xc3s50a-4vq100 as the top device
   2. FPGA_main - behavioral (FPGA_main.vhd) should have three square boxes on the left with the top one being green. This indicates that this is the top-level file
3. Edit any source files using Vim outside of the Xilinx software
4. Right click in the bottom left window on Configure Test Device and select "Rerun All"
   1. This will rerun Synthesize-XST, Implement Design, Generate Programming File, and Configure Target Device
5. Run Generate Target PROM/ACE File
6. Run Manage Configuration Project (iMPACT)
   1. This will open up the iMPACT program
   2. Be sure to have all other instances of iMPACT closed otherwise it is likely that there will be a communication error between the computer and the FPGA
   3. In the screen that pops up there should be a picture of two squares with Xilinx written in them connected to TDI and TDO
   4. TDI should connect to xcf01s_vo20 with the file device.mcs underneath
   5. The first square should connect to the second with xc3s50a bypass written underneath, which is then connected to TDO
7. In iMPACT in the top left window click on Create PROM File
   1. This should change the picture on the screen to two devices on the right and a green square on the left with the file fpga_main.bit inside
   2. In the window titled "iMPACT Processes" run Generate File
   3. When this succeeds there should be a message displayed in blue stating that it succeeded. Click on the Boundary Scan tab or on Boundary Scan in the top left window
8. Click on the left device, which should be labeled as Target and xcf01s_vo20 device.mcs.
9. Click on Program in the iMPACT Processes window
   1. This should erase any previous programming and flash the new program onto the FPGA

Igor's Guide to Flashing the First Prototype FPGA

Physical Setup

• Use the red Xilinx USB cable box to connect the digital control board to the computer.
• The instructions for mapping the colored wires to the digital control board can be found in the "Data Acquisition Station Log + Readout Electronics Project" logbook on pg. 104 in the top left corner.
• 2->red; 4->green; 6->yellow; 8->purple; 10->white; 13->black; gray is unconnected

Xilinx Software

We use the Xilinx Webpack (free) license. The program and license for tagger-station can be found in /nfs/direct/packages/xilinx.

Editing the uParam program

• Open Xilinx ISE Project Manager
• In the top left window select FPGA_ctrl. This should have 2 boxes and a "+" with the top box green. This indicates a top level project.
• Select uParam within FPGA_ctrl.
• To change the maximum voltage for VBias, change the binary value for DAC_Qmax.
  • This is a 14-bit number which is found by following the formula commented out in the program. 3.3V has been used for the reference voltage.
• The maximum gainmode value can be changed similarly.
• Save the file.
• There should be orange question marks in the lower left window. Run "generate programming file". Yellow exclamation marks correspond to warnings but not errors.

Flashing the program

• Now that the program has been changed and saved, open the Xilinx IMPACT program.
• Open IMPACT and go to the folder c/work/Gluex/Tagger/Electronics/FPGA/TotalTest and check to see if fpga_ctrl.bgn and .bit are up to date
• Open fpga.ipf
• There should be 2 diagrams showing the devices on the programming device: TDinput (xcf01s_vo20 fpga.mcs), TDoutput (xc3s50a bypass)
  • EEPROM (on left, chip holds the programming in non-volatile memory and programs FPGA on startup)
  • FPGA on right, volatile and forgets its programming at every powerdown
• Make sure that the digital board has power.
• Select Create PROM file in top left window. Xilinx needs to create a new mcs file out of the bit file before the FPGA can be programmed.
• The following settings should be used when creating the PROM
  • Xilinx flash/prom
  • PROM family platform flash
  • Device xcf01s [1M]. Add if not already there.
  • Output file name: fpga
  • Save to /TotalTest
  • Format mcs
  • Don't add non-config data.
  • Generate
• Switch back to the boundary scan tab.
• Select EEPROM then select program in the lower left window. Auto-erase normally occurs but if it doesn't, erase and then program.