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vhdlfpga
Henry Ford
Henry Ford

Reputation: 33

Programming an FPGA?

I want to program an FPGA on a board that has a socket (zif etc or whatever is applicable) for said FPGA, from which it can be removed and reattached without soldering. I want to know where I can get a board suitable for programming an FPGA in this way?

Once the FPGAs have been programmed they will be attached to another different PCB via solder.

I wish to essentially program the FPGA in a similar way that it is possible to program an EPROM.

I wish to use VHDL if at all possible.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1171

Answers (2)

Martin Thompson
Martin Thompson

Reputation: 16832

FPGAs are not programmed like an EPROM - their internals are completely volatile. In system use, they are 'configured' from some other non-volatile memory. For example, many can interface directly to a standard serial flash device to load that configuration.

This non-volatile memory is the device which you need to "program" in some fashion. For example:

  • before soldering, using some external agency
  • using JTAG (if it has such an interface).
  • Or, you can load a configuration into the FPGA over JTAG which then allows you to program the flash using the FPGA!

Upvotes: 6

sonicwave
sonicwave

Reputation: 6102

It sounds as if you've misunderstood a thing or two. An STM32F103 is a microcontroller, that is, a processor with built-in memory, I/O and similar, and is typically programmed in C or C++.

VHDL (a Hardware Description Language) is used to program FPGAs (amongst others). There is a fundamental difference in the two types of chips. A processor is a "static" chip, which executes a program instruction by instruction, whereas in an FPGA the chip hardware itself is programmable - you (by using for instance VHDL) describe the actual connectivity and functionality of the chip, and essentially create numerous small, customized and application-specific processors.

You should probably first of all learn a bit more about the differences between the two types of chips - then have a look at for instance some of Digilents FPGA boards.

Also, programming a chip in one board, unsoldering it, and soldering it to another is not a good idea. Both microcontrollers and FPGAs today should be soldered to their final board, and then programmed (for instance over JTAG) - I'm sorry to say that what you are proposing doesn't really make much sense - and if you look at the pin count and packages of today's chips you might see why.

Upvotes: 1

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