Custom JTAG debugger for Xilinx FPGAs based on FT22x chips

[asmi]

Xilinx quietly released an utility which allows to program EEPROM for FTDI's FT22x chips such that they will be recognized by their toolchain: https://docs.xilinx.com/r/en-US/ug908-vivado-programming-debugging/Programming-FTDI-Devices-for-Vivado-Hardware-Manager-Support
One no longer needs to buy overpriced JTAG modules from Digilent (or resort to illegal methods) if he/she wants to have a USB JTAG debugger on a board. That's a great move by Xilinx, even though I will still probably use my HS3 cable with TagConnect to save money and space for all of that programming stuff.

[ali_asadzadeh]

I have designed a PCB based on FT2232H, and I can use it with Gowin and Xilinx tools,
If I program the EEPROM with Digilent  HS2 content it can be recognized by xilinx tools  (ISE and viavdo), for Gowin devices I should erase the EEPROM, so it can be recognized by their tool.

I have emailed Gowin to add the support for Digilent  HS2, and they said the tools already should work! But it’s not working, and Every time I need to switch tools, I just reprogram the EEPROM for now, if someone suggest any workaround this, it would be very nice.

I wonder if the FT2232H can be used for ARM (keil) tools to act like a JTAG/SWD debugger, then I just need to carry one universal tool for programing and debugging.
Companies should give up making money on debugging tools, because it’s a small margin compared to selling chips and it just makes the customer work harder.

[NorthGuy]

Xilinx quietly released an utility which allows to program EEPROM for FTDI's FT22x chips such that they will be recognized by their toolchain: https://docs.xilinx.com/r/en-US/ug908-vivado-programming-debugging/Programming-FTDI-Devices-for-Vivado-Hardware-Manager-Support

Good decision. If only you could buy something you can program with it.

The EEPROM programming wasn't strictly necessary for configuring FPGA. It was only needed for Vivado and tools, not for FPGA. I wrote my own program to configure the FPGA with a given bitstream and could do it without any keys in EEPROM.

I wonder if the FT2232H can be used for ARM (keil) tools to act like a JTAG/SWD debugger

No doubts about this.

[langwadt]

I have designed a PCB based on FT2232H, and I can use it with Gowin and Xilinx tools,
If I program the EEPROM with Digilent  HS2 content it can be recognized by xilinx tools  (ISE and viavdo), for Gowin devices I should erase the EEPROM, so it can be recognized by their tool.

I have emailed Gowin to add the support for Digilent  HS2, and they said the tools already should work! But it’s not working, and Every time I need to switch tools, I just reprogram the EEPROM for now, if someone suggest any workaround this, it would be very nice.

if gowin just expects an empty eeprom, a series resistor and a jumper to short DOUT on the eeprom ?

[asmi]

Good decision. If only you could buy something you can program with it.

What do you mean?

[langwadt]

Good decision. If only you could buy something you can program with it.

What do you mean?

I suspect he's hinting at Xilinx IC being made from an extra rare kind of unobtanium

[asmi]

I suspect he's hinting at Xilinx IC being made from an extra rare kind of unobtanium

Ah, they are not alone in this, and I wonder if it ever gets back to any semblance of normalcy. At least I was able to find some scraps of them on the Aliexpress for cheap, which were good enough for prototyping/devboards.

[langwadt]

I suspect he's hinting at Xilinx IC being made from an extra rare kind of unobtanium

Ah, they are not alone in this, and I wonder if it ever gets back to any semblance of normalcy. At least I was able to find some scraps of them on the Aliexpress for cheap, which were good enough for prototyping/devboards.

look this guy, 1260 spartn6 for "only" $90K from possibly sketchy source
https://www.reddit.com/r/electronics/comments/ycywk3/hello_early_retirement/

[asmi]

look this guy, 1260 spartn6 for "only" $90K from possibly sketchy source
https://www.reddit.com/r/electronics/comments/ycywk3/hello_early_retirement/

No, I'm not crazy enough to risk that kind of money, and besides I use 7 series devices in my projects. I meant more like buying 3-4-5 devices for under $100 per device on Aliexpress, which stays under my threshold of the amount of money I'm willing to risk, and it's enough for a couple of iterations of a prototype or a devboard. For example, I've managed to snag five Zynq-030's for like $90 a year or so ago, but still can't settle on what I want to do with them.

[laugensalm]

The various forks of `xc3sprog` had support for most ISE-supported chips (including a few of the 7 series) for the last 15 years for FT2232* adapters and used to be way faster than its counterpart `Impact` or the flaky digilent equivalent `Adept`. Some folks (including me) had also hacked around on cable servers that worked with Impact. I believe this is now called virtual cable and has obviously some open source support, too.

So: They're a bit late, but maybe not for the Windows/Vivado user domain.