[Coco] DE-1 Clarification Please
tim franklinlabs.com
tim at franklinlabs.com
Sat Oct 28 16:37:02 EDT 2017
I will program one of my resent acquisitions to see if it works. I know
there's a document on the Yahoo page that precedes the website you
mentioned. There may have been some changes. I know there was some
discrepancies about the position of the ROM load address. I'll let you
know later tonight or tomorrow.
-Tim
On October 28, 2017 at 3:21 PM James Ross wrote:
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
[1]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 on behalf of tim 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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