programming FPGA

Tip / Sign in to post questions, reply, level up, and achieve exciting badges. Know more

cross mob
HuNg_4075441
Level 1
Level 1

Hello,

What is the best way (Host and FX3 firmware routines) to program the FPGA via SPI interface for the FPGA configuration image (.bin) is more than 2.8MB ?

How to create the loop to alternate between DMA image data in the (64KB) page format via USB-CPU channel buffer and the FPGA programming sequence

in such away that it can download and program the FPGA successfully ? (Note that alternating between DMA function and programming function requires stopping the SPI_CLK (Low) at the end of current programming page and during the host DMA the next page).

This requires the modification of the current example of AN84868 which the host issues the vendor command 0xB2 for download the FPGA configuration file (216KB) completely into the buffer[] before issuing the 0xB1 for programming from SPI. Note that in the example the programming file size is only 216KB and CYFX3 image file size

is 110K and the total is far less than the available FX3 RAM capacity of 512KB. The modification from host for FPGA Configuration Utility as well FX3 Firmware are needed as the alternate between DMA and programming to take place interleaved.

Thanks,

0 Likes
1 Solution
Hemanth
Moderator
Moderator
Moderator
First like given First question asked 750 replies posted

Hi Huynh,

(I should not have used SPI Flash in my last comment. Sorry for that. But the rest of the comment holds. I just meant programming via SPI)

1. Yes, increasing DMA buffer size will decrease the programming time as waiting time for the data from USB will decrease. The mechanism is - Data from the USB Endpoint reaches DMA buffers through USB socket after which CPU needs to use the SPI hardware registers to transfer the data out of SPI lines. If the DMA buffers allocated to the USB to CPU channel gets filled, then the endpoint would issue NRDY to the Host thereby not accepting new data till atleast one buffer is available.

Effect of increasing the buffer size: Let's say there are two buffers filled with data available to CPU to be sent out to SPI. Then after sending out the first buffer and while sending out second buffer, endpoint fills the free buffer. So, bigger the buffer size, more the time taken to empty it by the CPU.

2. Endianness should be configured during SPI Block initialization and it has nothing to do with the programming duration discussed above.

3. Relation between SPI Clk and DMA: As the SPI clock rate increases, quicker the rate at which DMA buffer is emptied by CPU.

Regards,

Hemanth

Hemanth

View solution in original post

0 Likes
3 Replies
Hemanth
Moderator
Moderator
Moderator
First like given First question asked 750 replies posted

Hi,

Entire FPGA configuration file (.bin file) is not copied to FX3's internal RAM before programming it to SPI Flash. When the vendor command VND_CMD_SLAVESER_CFGLOAD (0xB2) is received, FX3 comes to know the file size that is going to be received. If you see the 0xB2 vendor command handling, CY_FX_CONFIGFPGAAPP_START_EVENT event is set - which will cause the call - CyFxConfigFpga(filelen);

If you check CyFxConfigFpga(), you can see that FX3 keeps receiving each buffer from USB (which is of size 1KB) and writes to the SPI Flash. That is, receiving data from USB and programming the SPI Flash keeps happening simultaneously.

After the programming of SPI Flash is done, 0xB1 vendor command is issued to switch FX3's operation from programming mode to Slave FIFO mode.

Regards,

Hemanth

Hemanth
0 Likes

Hi,

I want to be more specific. The PC(Host USB) to download the FPGA_Config.bin file to FX3 via EP (USB-CPU) with file size (2.8MB). There is no

The programming FPGA is done via SPI using SPI_SSn as the PROGRAM_B signal to start FPGA programming and there is NO SERIAL SPI FLASH involved.

The programming command as set by host (0xB2) and received by FX3 firmware to trigger the programming mode.

What I don’t see is the DONE signal from FPGA. Here I have observed the followings :

1. The EP is configured for 1 burst of 1K (or size=1024). However; I noticed if I increase dmaCfg.size from 1024 to 2048 etc. then the programming time

Is decreased accordingly. Is it true ? What about buffer count “dmaCfg.count” , does it have any effect on the programming timing ? The thing I don’t

understand is the mechanics of throttling between fetching data from EP to DMA channel to programming. Is it automatic or how was it handled in hardware

to guarantee overrun/underrun is not happening ?

1. Is Little or Big Endiannes playing the role when downloading the programming data ?

2. What about the STARTUP many clocks cycles required by FPGA before the FPGA is live and DONE is acknowledged ? How does it handle by SPI engine when SPI_CLK

just stops right at the end of file size received ?

1. Followings are the GPIO signals I used for programming interface for Xilinx Spartan6 :

FPGA_PROGRAM_B = GPIO 45

FPGA_CCLK = SPI_SCK (GPIO 53)

FPGA_SDIN = SPI_MOSI (GPIO 56)

FPGA_INIT = GPIO 50

FPGA_DONE = GPIO 27

The difference is I do not use SPI_SSN as per AppNote for FPGA_PROGRAM_B and instead using GPIO 45. However; the code is still have ssnCtrl to be controlled by FW

To make sure it is in sync with clock. But I preceded the SSn signaling with :

CyU3PGpioSimpleSetValue (FPGA_PROGRAM_B, CyFalse);

apiRetStatus = CyU3PSpiSetSsnLine (CyFalse);

All other GPIO signals are configured as : CyU3PGpioSetSimpleConfig() and CyU3PDeviceGpioOverride()

The fact that I see the trails of SPI_CLK until the programming stop and measure approximately the time versus the SPI configuration clock and file size then I know it is

working properly and currently set at 25MHz.

1. I want to understand the relationship between SPI_CLK rate versus settings for DMA size and buffer count.

Thanks,

Huynh

0 Likes
Hemanth
Moderator
Moderator
Moderator
First like given First question asked 750 replies posted

Hi Huynh,

(I should not have used SPI Flash in my last comment. Sorry for that. But the rest of the comment holds. I just meant programming via SPI)

1. Yes, increasing DMA buffer size will decrease the programming time as waiting time for the data from USB will decrease. The mechanism is - Data from the USB Endpoint reaches DMA buffers through USB socket after which CPU needs to use the SPI hardware registers to transfer the data out of SPI lines. If the DMA buffers allocated to the USB to CPU channel gets filled, then the endpoint would issue NRDY to the Host thereby not accepting new data till atleast one buffer is available.

Effect of increasing the buffer size: Let's say there are two buffers filled with data available to CPU to be sent out to SPI. Then after sending out the first buffer and while sending out second buffer, endpoint fills the free buffer. So, bigger the buffer size, more the time taken to empty it by the CPU.

2. Endianness should be configured during SPI Block initialization and it has nothing to do with the programming duration discussed above.

3. Relation between SPI Clk and DMA: As the SPI clock rate increases, quicker the rate at which DMA buffer is emptied by CPU.

Regards,

Hemanth

Hemanth
0 Likes