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General question about EEPROM

Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Hi 

I recently had a problem with my dev kit- when I plugged it in to my computer, it showed up as a USB serial device as opposed to a USB blaster. The extremely helpful forummers here informed me that my EEPROM was corrupted, and the FT Prog tool supported this- after running the scan and parse, the device showed up as all 1s (FFFF).  

On the other hand, when I got the board and plugged it in, there seems to be a program left from the previous user- one of the switches turns on a LED. I assume that this program is loaded to the FPGA from the EEPROM 

So how can this be both ways- the EEPROM is corrupted that it does not support USB blaster, but it loads a program onto the FPGA? 

Thanks
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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DavidG92, 

 

The two functions you speak of are located in two different non-volatile memories (EEPROM) on your board.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
233 Views

 

--- Quote Start ---  

Hi 

I recently had a problem with my dev kit- when I plugged it in to my computer, it showed up as a USB serial device as opposed to a USB blaster. The extremely helpful forummers here informed me that my EEPROM was corrupted, and the FT Prog tool supported this- after running the scan and parse, the device showed up as all 1s (FFFF).  

On the other hand, when I got the board and plugged it in, there seems to be a program left from the previous user- one of the switches turns on a LED. I assume that this program is loaded to the FPGA from the EEPROM 

So how can this be both ways- the EEPROM is corrupted that it does not support USB blaster, but it loads a program onto the FPGA? 

Thanks 

--- Quote End ---  

 

 

Hi DavidG92, 

 

Which dev kit are you using? Are you saying that you are connecting to the on-board USB Blaster connector on the dev kit? The flash device that loads/configures the FPGA when power up and the EEPROM for the USB Blaster circuitry are two different type of flash. You should refer to the dev kit guide which should have the explanation on the configuration scheme use on the for the FPGA. Also, there should be another connector for USB Blaster which uses the 10 pin male header for JTAG programming to the FPGA.  

 

Regards, 

nyusof 

(This message was posted on behalf of Intel Corporation)
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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--- Quote Start ---  

Also, there should be another connector for USB Blaster which uses the 10 pin male header for JTAG programming to the FPGA. 

--- Quote End ---  

 

There's no 10-pin header for FPGA JTAG programming at the DE2-70 kit the user is asking about. Only an unpopulated header for USB Blaster CPLD factory programming. 

 

 

--- Quote Start ---  

 

The two functions you speak of are located in two different non-volatile memories (EEPROM) on your board.  

--- Quote End ---  

 

Yes, the previous FPGA program is stored in EPCS16 AS flash.
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