On 22 Feb., 19:10, Peter Alfke <pe...@xilinx.com> wrote:> On Feb 22, 9:16 am, Antti <Antti.Luk...@googlemail.com> wrote: > > > > > On 22 Feb., 18:08, Peter Alfke <pe...@xilinx.com> wrote: > > > > On Feb 21, 3:14 am, puneetjamr...@gmail.com wrote: > > > > > Hi all, > > > > > I want to know whether it is possible to program Spartan 3a for a run > > > > time partial reconfiguration. > > > > If yes are there any detailed demo programs available? > > > > > Regards, > > > > Parunoy > > > > Here is a radically different idea: > > > Why (partial) reconfiguration? > > > Anything you can do with reconfiguration, you can also achieve by > > > logic duplication. Reconfiguration is just more efficient and might > > > give higher performance. > > > The OP seems to aim for small changes, like changing up-count to down- > > > count. For that, reconfiguration is gross overkill. > > > I suggest looking at the traditional solution to such designs, namely > > > logic duplication. > > > An up/down counter is hardly bigger than an up-counter... > > > Peter Alfke, Xilinx Applications > > > sure, the OP was maybe barking under wrong tree. > > > the topic itself is still interesting, if I have some soft-core say in > > right half of the die > > and if i want to change the PULLUP to PULLDOWN on the left side of the > > die > > > I would assume this could be done by S3A ICAP ??? > > > most MCU's can have pullup control in software, FPGA's have that > > control > > only via configuration, I could see S3A adds at least partially this > > possibilty > > or is there some thing that prevents such runtime reconfig? > > > Antti > > Antti, in partial reconfiguration (as in many things) the devil is in > the details. Partial reconfiguration can inherently change only one > frame at a time. In Virtex, the change is guaranteed to be glitchless > (no erroneous codes), but in Spartan there will be glitches = > erroneous codes. > If you stop the clock, these glitches will probably (?) not cause any > harm... > > If Xilinx were to support such a feature in Spartan, there would be so > many "ifs and buts" that we would would perhaps make some designers > happy, but definitely alienate others. So we decided not to support > this feature in Spartan. Use Virtex if you need partial > reconfiguration... > PeterLOL, i may wanna want to support features available in Xilinx silicon that useable in some given application. If I have such application I may also do some reconfig in S3A, not matter it is officially supported. But agreed, what is not officially supported is no on the recommended list of things to be done. right. Antti to Peter, I have an application where even glitchy reconfig could be VERY useable in S3, the project is on ice right now, but i may get it active some day
Reconfiguration (on the fly) using SPARTAN 3A
Started by ●February 21, 2008
Reply by ●February 22, 20082008-02-22
Reply by ●February 23, 20082008-02-23
On 22 Feb., 13:34, Andreas Ehliar <ehliar-nos...@isy.liu.se> wrote:> On 2008-02-22, Antti <Antti.Luk...@googlemail.com> wrote: > > > whatever the supported features of Spartan3A-ICAP are, no other > > spartan family has anything related to self-reconfig at all, there is > > no ICAP. > > As a footnote I could add that I've seen a paper on a Spartan-3 based > system which reconfigured itself by using the external configuration > interface:http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~listarch/microblaze-uclinux/archive/2006/0... > > /AndreasLOL, yes I have seen that paper too of course. I forgot and did write incomplete I should have said no other spartan has self-reconfiguration WITHOUT special externak wiring, i.e. using on chip resources onlye (ICAP) Antti
Reply by ●February 23, 20082008-02-23
On Feb 23, 11:29 am, Antti <Antti.Luk...@googlemail.com> wrote:> On 22 Feb., 13:34, Andreas Ehliar <ehliar-nos...@isy.liu.se> wrote: > > > On 2008-02-22, Antti <Antti.Luk...@googlemail.com> wrote: > > > > whatever the supported features of Spartan3A-ICAP are, no other > > > spartan family has anything related to self-reconfig at all, there is > > > no ICAP. > > > As a footnote I could add that I've seen a paper on a Spartan-3 based > > system which reconfigured itself by using the external configuration > > interface:http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~listarch/microblaze-uclinux/archive/2006/0... > > > /Andreas > > LOL, yes I have seen that paper too of course. I forgot and did write > incomplete > I should have said no other spartan has self-reconfiguration WITHOUT > special > externak wiring, i.e. using on chip resources onlye (ICAP) > > AnttiTo Antti, Thank you so much for your responses. I also went through that paper seems like a very good solution to my problem, but i'm not able to understand it completely as i'm only a student without much (or u can say any) experience. How are they actually using that "Config Flash" block is not very clear. Can you help me on that? and ICAP?? You also talked about stopping the system clock in order to achieve reconfigurability in s3a. How can that be achieved? It is difficult for us to go for Virtex as of now. Are there any FPGAs from Altera that can help us?? To Peter Alfke, Thank you for ur replies I've of course considered the traditional method to run an updown counter by selecting manually the functionality. But i want to achieve the same thing through reconfiguration as a part of my college project. Can you explain me how to 'stop the clock to remove the glitches' as u mentioned?? Regards, Paru noy
