Programming Lattice Microcontrollers - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: praveen_khm
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2013, 10:24:01 am
content: Hi,This is my first post here and am here with a question.I have a weird looking board sent by one of the customer and he requested if I could program it. The board has a "Lc4128v-75tn100-10i" IC which says it is a programmable IC as per the datasheet. For someone who is interested, here is the link for datasheet I found on google.http://cs.utsource.net/goods_files/pdf/11/117298_LATTICE_LC4128ZC-75T100C.pdfWhat I need to know is how do we program this microcontroller. If someone is interested, I can attach an image of the board so that it might make it more clear, though it looks like kind-of a relay board. I am mostly into atmel IC's and this one looks more like a foreign language.Request someone to please help.Thanks,Praveen

author: Stonent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2013, 10:32:38 am
content: That's not a microcontroller. It is a PLD.And yes if you program microcontrollers it will be a foreign language. PLDs, CPLDs, PALs, GALs and FPGAs are to microcontrollers as stem cells are to humans.They can be programmed but using Verilog or VHDL not C or Assembly.Maybe a better analogy would be a PLD has more in common with a 1Kg bag of 74 series logic chips than a microcontroller.They can become anything provided there are enough logic elements inside.

author: praveen_khm
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2013, 11:36:54 am
content: Thanks a lot for the response Stonent. Your response made it clear what I have. I guess it is difficult to learn and program this now.Just to make it more clear, am explaining the situation.One of our customer has a board which he says is obsolete. However, his clients are dependent on that and he wants to recreate the hardware (reverse-engineer). All he wants is to move the firmware from that board to new board. I see that the board has some sort of a JTAG interface.Now my options are:1. Get the firmware out of the board somehow and then push it into the new board and hope that works2. Learn everything from scratch and reprogram it (which seems not a possible in the near future).(Asking in microcontroller terms) Is it possible to get the firmware or the hex file out of this board? If using a microcontroller, I can easily read and download the hex file and upload to different board.The last option I have is to give him the board back and tell him to contact the right personbut just giving a try.

author: Crazy Ape
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2013, 03:49:27 pm
content: The device likely has it's 'security bit' set so reading the current configuration pattern might not be an option. It wouldn't help you anyway unless the new board was 'exactly' the same.The only way to reset the 'security bit' is to erase the entire device.You can erase/program it with 'ispLEVER Classic'. I've never used it so can't help with specifics, sorry, but I saw hints to it being 'product term' based programming rather than VHDL / Verilog (Edit:It supports VHDL and Verilog as well).http://www.latticesemi.com/Products/DesignSoftwareAndIP/FPGAandLDS/ispLEVERClassic.aspxLooks like ispLEVER Classic has some form of schematic entry as well.The device page on the Lattice website.http://www.latticesemi.com/en/Products/FPGAandCPLD/ispMACH4000VBCZ.aspx