Thanks guys. I will dive into Xilinx Starter Kit since
it is very complete to me. Love the VGA port function!
I smell a 6502 chip... 

Thanks,
john

--- Robert Young <rwyoung@ieee.org> wrote:

> >   
> >   Does the Starter Kit from Xilinx contain the
> JTAG
> > for me to use? I believe I would only use the
> > development board for it's hobbist friendliness
> and
> > it's smaller kit board for some projects.
> 
> At one time the ones made by Digelent came with a
> clone of the old
> parallel port JTAG cable.  Works if you have a
> parallel port but a bit
> on the slow side for programming big parts.  Also
> uses a larger header.
> The USB cable or Parallel Cable IV is a good
> investment.
> 
> > 
> > > I don't know how familiar you are with FPGAs, so
> > > I'll give a few
> > > pointers. First off the configuration in an FPGA
> is
> > > usually volatile
> > > (stored in SRAM), when the power goes, so does
> the
> > > config. That means
> > > you have to program the FPGA each time you power
> up.
> > > During development
> > > that is fine since you'll have your programmer
> > > connected. However, to
> > > get standalone you'll need to add "FPGA PROMs"
> to
> > > the board. They are
> > > basically special EEPROMs that will program the
> FPGA
> > > on powerup.
> > 
> >   I think a PIC solution would be great here. Am I
> > right?  
> 
> Yes you can do this but you will still need a
> relatively large
> non-volatile storage device unless you plan on
> booting through some
> other communication stream (RS232, USB, ethernet,
> etc) while connected
> to a PC.  Adding the serial EEPROMs for the FPGAs is
> not a big deal.
> Cheap parts.  Can be in-system programed via the
> above mentioned
> programming cables.
> 
> I've worked on systems were we had both EEPROM and
> the ability to
> reprogram the FPGAs from a processor (happened to be
> a DSP).  Worked
> great for field upgrades since the DSP was already
> talking to a monitor
> port and could reprogram its FLASH.
> 
> Several app notes on Xilinx's site about
> microcontroller booting, using
> a CPLD to boot and other fun stuff.
> 
> Rob
> -- 
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