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fpgavlsidigital-design
Sparsh
Sparsh

Reputation: 11

applying stimulus to FPGA using PC

Is there any way I can apply stimulus signals on my FPGA board from my PC itself, and view the output of hardware in any simulation software? I am working on Spartan 3A development board provided by numato labs (elbert V2) https://numato.com/product/elbert-v2-spartan-3a-fpga-development-board/ It is a relatively small board with few peripherals, so the number of LEDs for output and push-buttons for input is quite less.

I am a newbie to FPGAs but have sound knowledge on verilog. Please help me out with this

Thanks

Upvotes: 0

Views: 195

Answers (1)

Mikef
Mikef

Reputation: 2500

The board does not have an physical interface intended for use as wired connection/communications (no ethernet, no usb, no uart, etc) to a PC.

These are the easiest ways I can think of for an 'elbert V2' board to communicate with a PC:

  1. The board has a micro SD connector to access files on the micro SD interface. Those files could be accessed by a Verilog simulation.

  2. A USB to UART adapter could be used with the boards GPIO interface.
    Here is an example:
    https://www.amazon.com/3-3V-UART-Serial-Cable-TTL-232R-3V3/dp/B078GMQPLT
    The cable provides 3.3V TTL and the board has 3.3V gpio ports so that is encouraging. Probably just need to connect 3 wires tx/rx/ground.
    You would need to design or find UART RTL IP for the FPGA.
    Designing the UART would be a good intermediate level Verilog project.
    Use procom or similar software on the PC to communicate with the USB/UART com port on the PC and a file. Verilog simulations can access the data in the file.

Upvotes: 0

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