21 Jul
2002
21 Jul
'02
11:05 a.m.
On Sun, 21 Jul 2002, Eric Smith wrote:
Why not use the Atmel or Xilinx reprogrammable parts? They will work
fine with Altera FPGAs. They don't have special programming requirements,
so you can burn them yourself, over and over without spending more money.
Another option is to use a SST45LV010 (1 mbit) serial flash chip and an 8 pin
PIC. The combination costs less than the Xilinx or Atmel PROMS and the FPGA
configuration can be downloaded to the flash chip via a standard serial
port...
Just store your RIM loader in the serial PROM after
the FPGA
configuration. After the FPGA is configured, it can read the serial
PROM into memory.
If the FPGA design used a micro-controler and Flash memory I
would have
no problems with that idea. The design uses a One-Time-Programable
serial prom Altera EPC1441 in a 20 pin PLCC package. A rather hard
part for me to find and get programmed localy. Thanks for the idea
however.
Also, I don't see any reason why you'd need a microcontroller to be
involved. Some of my FPGA designs read extra data from their own config
PROM, with no microcontroller involved. I just hooked up the config pins
to some I/O pins. During config, all the I/O pins are high-Z, so they
don't interfere with the configuration.
Peter Wallace
Mesa Electronics