ok, now that I am here and I am learning a bit about FPGA from you guys, here is a much more primitive and dumber question:
does the FPGA need to have a clock (like CPU) to start? I know it has a PLL on itself and has multiple clock circuits on itself and I know it will need clock to function "eventually" but what about the starting point? I mean can it "start up" its own clock? or it must be fed by a clock at the beginning?
you see, there is a basic 10MHz reference clock on the board that all other LO frequencies will be locked to it and I am pretty sure the FPGA also gets its clock from that. However, after much reverse engineering, it is obvious that there is a CMOS switch that turns ON/OFF the VCC of the 10MHz oscillator (which will be the heart of the whole spectrum analyzer board) and I can only conclude that this switch must be controlled by one of the pins of the FPGA. I have checked every single available place on the board and it does not go anywhere and I think it must be under the FPGA
Now, my dilemma is that this switch remains off and so the 10MHz oscillator never comes online. Which for me it only makes sense if the FPGA is faulty. But let's say it was not faulty and the unit worked, then does that make sense that FPGA will have to start its own clock??
looks like a chicken and egg situation to me. You now know that I know nothing about FPGA, don't you