[Coco] DE-1 Clarification Please

[James Ross]

Interesting Tim.  Thanks for the*.sof advice, I did see a blurb about that in the manual.  Wikipedia talks about most flash devices lasting ~ 100,000 cycles – but I’ve seen other places state as low as 10,000 … Hopefully these DE1's are closer to the 100k!   

Thanks for your previous answer on the programming order.  I am going to play around w/ it soon and see if I can confirm your statement that it does not matter.   I have no idea what was making my first 3 or 4 tries fail.  I am fairly certain that the guide at http://www.brianholman.com/retrocompute/files/coco3fpga.html if followed verbatim does NOT result in a working system.

Thanks again for the info. 

James

________________________________________
From: Coco <coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com> on behalf of tim franklinlabs.com <tim at franklinlabs.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 28, 2017 7:56 PM
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [Coco] DE-1 Clarification Please

   ...Oh one more thing... Pay close attention on the number of times you
   program the flash *POF or ROM). Flash has a limit on the number of
   times you can write to it before it dies. It's write capability is very
   large but it does have a limit. Use SOF files if you are experimenting.
   Most flash cards do whats called "wear leveling" to increase the write
   cycles. I'm not sure if the DE1 flash supports wear leveling.

   -Tim

     On October 28, 2017 at 1:58 PM James Ross wrote:
     Hey Tim,
     Thanks for this clarification. Nice to know!!
     Since the day I got my DE1 to boot up to the 3 amigos, I have not
     had time to play w/ it again. However, I really want to get the
     process down pat, since I want to go back-and-forth re-programming
     it with tutorials and the CoCo3FPGA.
     Here is my question: does the order in which you program DE1 matter?
     For example, the last few messages on the Yahoo group a couple of us
     in that thread have determined that you must:
     1) First program the FLASH w/ the ROMS
     2) Next program the CoCo3 FPGA *.pof file
     Since if you reverse that order, programming the FLASH second, it
     will clobber the *.pof file?
     Since apparently to program the FLASH, regardless which control
     panel you use, the process must load a *.pof file -- w/ the older
     control panel you have to do it manually, w/ the newer control panel
     it does it automatically.
     *OR* am I/we incorrect in that assessment?
     James
     ________________________________________
     From: Coco on behalf of tim franklinlabs.com
     Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2017 9:58 PM
     To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
     Subject: Re: [Coco] DE-1 Clarification Please
     The PROG/RUN switch enabled the write capabilities of the on board
     FPGA
     flash device. NOT the FLASH RAM. The FPGA doesn't retain anything
     when
     power is removed. You can send the progtam directly to the FPGA
     (.sof)
     file and run it using the programming tool. When power is removed,
     the
     FPGA forgets the program. There's a "Config Flash" chip connected to
     the FPGA that programs the FPGA automatically at power up. This
     flash
     is programed by placing the RUN/PROG switch in PROG mode and sending
     the POF file the same way you send the SOF file This is done with
     the
     programmer tool (not the control panel).
     The control panel allows you to write to the on board external
     flash. A
     totally seperate chip. This chip is NOT connected to the RUN/PROG
     switch therefore the switch has no affect on writing to it.
     On October 24, 2017 at 4:22 PM rcrislip wrote:
     Trying to follow the various procedures to flash/program the DE-1 is
     a
     little confusing for me. An answer to this question will clear the
     fog
     tremendously. When using the Control Panel, is the "prog/run" switch
     set to prog or run, likewise when using Quartus, what position is
     the
     switch to be in? I think I know, but conformation from you folks
     will help a lot. TIA
     RECrislip
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