Picoblaze + Blockram + Data3Mem = help needed

Hi folks,

I am just trying my first steps with the picoblaze. And I feel alone 
with some questions.

My situation [to avoid unnecessary tips :-)]:
I don't use ISE gui or core generator, only a self-made flow consisting 
of a few nice shell scripts.
What I am able to to is to use Block ram (RAMB16 on Spartan 3 and 3e) in 
a n*8 bit width configuration and initialize it via data2mem. Once I 
wrote a suitable .bmm file. But as of today I cannot anymore find the 
data2mem documentation which I used back then again :-(

-> Question: Where to get the full docs on data2mem?

Now I want to hook up a picoblaze to a block ram. The picoblaze uses 18 
bits width, that means 16 bit plus parity.

-> Question: How do I initialize that with data2mem?

I have kpicosim which outputs a .mem file. But I don't know how to write 
the appropriate .bmm file. I also don't know anything detailed about 
kpicosim as I cannot find ANY docs about it. Anyone experience with 
kpicosim? I would appreciate having a "vhdl template file" for it.

-> Question: Can I use data2mem for simulation (by generating a vhdl 
configuration for example)?

Any hints, code samples, suitable .bmm-files are very welcome.

Thanks a lot!

Best regards,

Philipp :-)

Hi again,

sorry for asking  silly questions....

I already found SOME answers: I found the data2mem doc again. And I 
found a note in this usegroup's archive that I can tell data2mem 
something about RAMB18.
Ok, but I still have to use RAMB16 in my design, is that correct? And if 
I do, where and how to use the parity data lines?
Possibilities to form the picoblaze input are:

  15             0 10
  DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD PP

and

10 15             0
PP DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Of course I could also twist the parity bits.
So how to do it correct the first time?

What kind of vhdl file is output by data2mem? does it handle the 18 bit 
things correctly when used that way?

Best regards,
Philipp :-)




Philipp Hachtmann wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> I am just trying my first steps with the picoblaze. And I feel alone 
> with some questions.
> 
> My situation [to avoid unnecessary tips :-)]:
> I don't use ISE gui or core generator, only a self-made flow consisting 
> of a few nice shell scripts.
> What I am able to to is to use Block ram (RAMB16 on Spartan 3 and 3e) in 
> a n*8 bit width configuration and initialize it via data2mem. Once I 
> wrote a suitable .bmm file. But as of today I cannot anymore find the 
> data2mem documentation which I used back then again :-(
> 
> -> Question: Where to get the full docs on data2mem?
> 
> Now I want to hook up a picoblaze to a block ram. The picoblaze uses 18 
> bits width, that means 16 bit plus parity.
> 
> -> Question: How do I initialize that with data2mem?
> 
> I have kpicosim which outputs a .mem file. But I don't know how to write 
> the appropriate .bmm file. I also don't know anything detailed about 
> kpicosim as I cannot find ANY docs about it. Anyone experience with 
> kpicosim? I would appreciate having a "vhdl template file" for it.
> 
> -> Question: Can I use data2mem for simulation (by generating a vhdl 
> configuration for example)?
> 
> Any hints, code samples, suitable .bmm-files are very welcome.
> 
> Thanks a lot!
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Philipp :-)