PLD/FPGA programming pod for labs in Learning the Art of Electronics - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: patrickpoet
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 07, 2023, 06:41:11 am
content: I intend to work through all of the labs in the text book, Learning the Art of Electronics, by Thomas C. Hayes with Paul HorowitzThey recommend that I get a PLD/FPGA programming pod, and say they use a Xilinx model DLC9G. I can't find that, and don't know enough, (yet), to tell if things that show up from searches have the same capabilities.Can anyone help? I thought about putting the question to the FPGA forum instead, but looking over it they seem to be much more advanced than this question.Patrick

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2023, 06:58:25 am
content: You are not likely to have the same exact boards used in those labs. And most modern beginner boards have a programming cable on the board itself. There is no need for a standalone cable.But otherwise, yes the cloned cables generally work like the original.I'm, also not sure if AoE is the best source for learning FPGAs.

author: patrickpoet
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 07, 2023, 07:53:28 am
content: With no experience I find it quite confusing. Searching I find devices that sound like they have some similar some different capabilities, some aren't mentioned but maybe something else they say might mean the same thing. I felt at sea looking through the search results being unable to tell if the device I was looking at did the same thing as the one they used in the class.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2023, 03:48:51 pm
content: DLC9G is a very old programming cable from Xilinx. I don't think they even sell the original anymore. And it has been cloned to death. It is one of the most cloned devices ever. The original one is stupid expensive, so there is lots of room for the clones. The reason they are used in educational setting is that all vendors give steep discounts to the Universities.On the inside they all use the same schematic. Obviously clones don't bother with good marketing, so descriptions all over the place. But the cable itself has no "capabilities", it is mostly just an adapter from USB to JTAG. The build quality may be different though.This is the reality of the FPGA world as a hobbyist - everything original is very expensive, so you have to sift though the clones and figure out what works. This is why it is better to get a board with the debugger already on it. One less thing to worry about what starting.And speaking of the board - what target board they are using? What device is on there? Have you found it?Another big issue with older FPGAs is that they are supported by old IDEs that are out of support themselves and may not run correctly on modern OSes. So, if the board/device are very old, be prepared ti do stupid stuff like installing Windows XP in a VM.

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2023, 02:39:59 am
content: you have some unversal one from aliexpress or ebay, bought one worked finebut yes you need to know on wich fpga/cpld you want to work with, as their software evolved "cough" many models dissapeared, you can still download then up to ISE v12 not sure up to ISE 14 ... and yes in some cases you'll ned a VM machine

author: patrickpoet
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 08, 2023, 06:22:26 am
content: Thanks to everyone who's trying to help me, I'm going to have to learn more before I really understand your help:)I did find an article that said I could build my own with a pico, so just a few bucks.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2023, 06:25:55 am
content: Build what? You can build an abstract programmer, but you want something that would be recognized by the FPGA vendor tools.The starting point for all of this is selecting the FPGA. Once you know that, it would be much easier to figure out what tools you need. Starting with the tool is backwards and you are likely to waste money.And with USB FS in the Pico, you will get abysmally slow speeds. It might work for the programming, but you can forget about using ChipScope and other useful debugging tools.