Obsolete Xilinx Chip

Question

My company is trying to build a pcb with an obsolete xilinx fpga (XC3042A) which is part of the XC3000 series chips. Does anyone have any experience programming the data to the chip? I'm looking for what software, hardware, etc. people have used.

Answer 1

I have programmed old Xilinx chips (XC4010XL) using a custom built interface to the ISA bus. I used Turbo-C on a DOS box and a home-made ISA card with '245 (bidir transceiver) and a 74LS74 (dual flip flop D) for strobe signals on a slave parallel configuration.

It is not difficult to implement the same using a parallel port, for instance.

Answer 2

The current Xilinx tools and cables will program old parts.

Answer 3

You should be able to find the programming specs from the Xilinx website. They provide documentation on the different methods used in programming their FPGA. It should be in their AppNotes. They have several modes - typically slave serial or select map (parallel). That means some sort of SPI flash, or parallel flash, or JTAG.

If you look around, you may find schematics for a DIY programming cable too, You can also interface a small micro. say a 8-bit PIC to handle the programming specs while you design your own custom interface to it or interface it to a SD card or something else.

Answer 4

The XC3000 series does not use the JTAG interface, so you can not use the Xilinx programmer to download your configuration.

You can do so by either using an external EPROM or an embedded processor to download the code.

Take a look at this applications note from Xilinx: http://www.xilinx.com/support/documentation/application_notes/xapp090.pdf For daisy chain: http://www.xilinx.com/support/documentation/application_notes/xapp091.pdf

It describes the data format as well as signal info for downloading the configuration file to the FPGA.

You can use older version of the Xilinx programmer from their web site and configure the devices, I believe the last version of the xilinx supporting the 3000 series was version 8 but I am not sure.

Answer 5

Check out FTDI . You might be able to convince them to go with some updated hardware. It's currently $150 CAD for USB + FPGA, and $80 CAD extra if you bundle it with a Manual. Plus shipping.

It even supports the free web kit available from the Xilinx website.