Xilinx Programming for xc9536

[JonPyro]

Hi All,

I have spent the last week trying to get xilinx impact to recognise my usb programmer on win7 and have now given up, it really is not worth my time and effort.

I have some old xc9536s and a spartan 6 board that I want to program through JTAG. What are my other options? Doing some research I see that Bus Blaster may be able to program these chips using other software? Could someone explain to me what hardware I will need and what software?

I did have a look a digilent JTAG cables but they don't support the xc9536 but do the spartan6.

[james_s]

I use a Xilinx USB platform cable, it's a clone from China but it works perfectly. Is that the sort of cable you have?

[janoc]

I was programming XC95xxXLs using xcs3prog, urjtag or OpenOCD and a simple FTDI-based cable (cheap generic JTAG dongle). Bus Blaster should work too, it is FTDI-based and explicitly designed for programming of these things.

This article shows how to do it (it uses RaspberryPi but any Linux will likely do fine):
https://medium.com/@jim.mussared/programming-a-xc9500xl-cpld-with-a-raspberry-pi-667dd9d6b5af

And on Bus Blaster:
http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Blaster

The only disadvantage of this method is that you can't use the Impact in ISE Webpack but you need to generate a file (either a .bit or .svf) and then use the external command-line program to flash the CPLD.

Spartan 6 should work using a simple FTDI cable too - that's what e.g. the Papillio/Papillio Pros have on board. You may be able to use their tool to upload the code then.

[JonPyro]

Thanks, I have a clone I believe of the Xilinx dc9 cable.

Would this cable work:
https://uk.farnell.com/digilent/250-003/programming-cable-jtag-to-usb/dp/2061852

I already have adept and have used it for an old basys2 board so know how to work the software.

[iMo]

9536 is 5V and 9536XL is 3.3V.
I did 9536XL via printer parallel port (something like 6 resistors and 4 diodes and 3.3V reg) in past.
FT2232 or FT232H should work too.

[james_s]

I did the parallel port thing years ago, a lot of PCs don't even have those anymore these days though.

[JonPyro]

Hang on, am I being stupid. If I download ISE 14.7 vmware version, that would support impact and USB programmer on win10. I could then build the config files on my ISE 12 version and transfer them to vmare for programming.

[rstofer]

Hang on, am I being stupid. If I download ISE 14.7 vmware version, that would support impact and USB programmer on win10. I could then build the config files on my ISE 12 version and transfer them to vmare for programming.

That is a complex work-around to a very simple fix for 14.7 running natively on Win 10 64 bit.  Just install 14.7 and change a couple of file names and you are good to go.

See https://www.xilinx.com/support/answers/62380.html particularly the section ISE 14.7 64-bit - Turning off SmartHeap:

I have been running 14.7 on Win 10 for several years - no issues.  I use Digilent Adept to program my Digilent boards so I don't know much about how Impact might perform.

I would think that running 14.7 on a VM would slow it down considerably and it is already slow enough.


Here is a thread on the topic:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/fpga/guide-getting-xilinx-ise-to-work-with-windows-8-64-bit/

[JonPyro]

But have you got the drivers for the Xilinx programmer working on native win10. Last time I tried windows refused to install them because of 'known issues'. Without the programmer drivers then ISE on  its own is no good to me as I can't program the chipsets.

[james_s]

I haven't tried, my experience with Windows 10 is that it's a steaming turd that is more trouble than it's worth. Even the wildly unpopular Win8 is arguably a superior user experience once you install an aftermarket start menu and gut the Metro crap. At least it doesn't spontaneously undo your customization efforts whenever it feels like.

[janoc]

Thanks, I have a clone I believe of the Xilinx dc9 cable.

Would this cable work:
https://uk.farnell.com/digilent/250-003/programming-cable-jtag-to-usb/dp/2061852

I already have adept and have used it for an old basys2 board so know how to work the software.

No idea, sorry

[JonPyro]

I just want to put this thread to bed for any future readers.

The win7 problem turned out to be ISE install configured a 32bit version of ISE and impact on my 64bit machine and installed the 64bit drivers. Due to this the programs would not talk to the drivers.

After many hours I decided to go deep into the install directories and open the setup.exe in the nt64 folder. This forced an install of impact as 64bit.

Now impact and drivers are the same 64bit version the programmers work.

I still have some issues with the usb programmer, it seems a little glitchy. However, I bought a parallel port PCI card from eBay and it works fine with my old parallel Programmer Cable III.

So it's not perfect, but it works, I can do what I need. What a joy working with old boards is.

[james_s]

Odd that the USB cable is glitchy, mine has always been rock solid. I suppose USB is always a bit of a crapshoot though. I was never able to get my USB DMX interface to work properly on my Win7 x64 laptop but it's flawless on the old XP machine I use for that.

[JonPyro]

I wonder whether it's a cheap usb cable causing the problem, with have to experiment if I ever get time.

[james_s]

I have encountered garbage USB cables that had wires so thin the voltage would sag. The hardware is also subject to the usual disclaimers regarding inexpensive Chinese clones. Mine works great but YMMV.

I do have to wonder why the Xilinx cable is so much bigger and more complicated than the Altera cables.