Re: Spartan-3A DSP 1800A Dev Board JTAG Cable and Programming Software

On Jul 26, 5:37 am, no.s...@xxxxxxx (Scott Gravenhorst) wrote:
I have a Spartan-3A DSP 1800A development board which comes with no
cable. I understand that Xilinx makes a cable for $150 that works
with iMPACT. There is also a 6 pin JTAG conntector on the board.

I already know that the Digilent JTAG-USB cable will NOT work with
either iMPACT nor Adept. Communication with Digilent indicates that
they may support this FPGA in the future, but it is currently not
supported. I've also tried xilprg which does not yet support this
FPGA.

I would like to find a more cost effective method than the Xilinx
cable. I've read comments here and elsewhere that the Digilent
Parallel III cable is a clone of the Xilinx cable. Does anyone know
if Will this cable (Digilent Parallel III) works with this board and
iMPACT or any other Windows based FPGA programmer software? Or is
there a better solution?

Many thanks.

-- ScottG

I started down that path; it bothered me to pay $200 for a simple USB
dongle.

The Xilinx programmer "just works". If it doesn't, my friendly local
FAE will fix that. I figured that I would be busy enough working on
the real parts of the project that the half-week (or so) spent looking
for a lower-cost replacement was a poor use of my time.

And think about it: The board is $1100, EDK adds $500, and the DSP
bundle is another $1000. And if you want full ISE with simulator, add
$3500. Even with WebPack, that's $3600, percentage-wise, the
programmer doesn't add that much.

Just my opinion,
G.

.

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