Supported SPI flashes

[YanK]

Where can I find an information about SPI flashes supported by JTAG-HS2 and Adept SW? Till now have only found a phrase about "Selected Third Party SPI PROMS supported..." I am interested in a specific Macronix device MX25UW12845G, being used together with Spartan 7 FPGA

[JColvin]

Hi @YanK,

The reason we don't have a list of the Selected Third Party SPI PROMs is because Xilinx maintains the list (considering that Vivado being able to configure the flash memory rather than the JTAG-HS2 "cable" is the key factor in this).

Since you are using a Spartan 7 device, you would need to look at the Configuration Memory Support section of Xilinx UG908, which is Appendix E for the latest version of the guide that I linked you. I wasn't able to find your device via Ctrl+f, but hopefully you will be able to find some options that suit your needs.

Thanks,
JColvin

[YanK]

Hi 

Thanks for the answer. However, I've asked this question exactly because this device is not officially supported by Xilinx. I was told by a senior Xilinx FAE, that there may be a workaround for that, if we can program the device with your tools and Xilinx will help us then with the boot part from the programmed flash.

Do you understand what he means? Or there is some misunderstanding?

Thanks

Yan

[xc6lx45]

Maybe this is obvious but have you tried Macronix MX25L12845G? (Vivado 2019.2. Use "Select configuration Memory part" dialog and the search term "12845").

You might look at the data sheet and / or simply try (with the on-board verify you can be reasonably confident that it has been written properly). This is just engineering reality, sometimes trial-and-error is the best way.

Most of the Flash memories are fairly similar in their programming command set.

It may be that vendors are reluctant to give obvious advice when they have to worry about all the bad press when e.g. someone's self-driving car crashes into a nuclear power station.

[YanK]

I know that this one is supported. But, I do not have a board with the flash I am talking about to take and try. I am trying to learn in advance whether this can be possible...

[xc6lx45]

Oh OK.

If it's footprint compatible, you might be able to drop it into some cheap EVB with a hot air soldering station. Large pitch, easy to solder.

[YanK]

Maybe we will go for something like that at the end of the the day... I still hope to get a qualified answer about the diligent programming cable.

[D@n]

@YanK,

You know ... it's not all that hard to program the SPI flash yourself.  You just need a bitstream which can be loaded via JTAG, and a way to communicate the new flash load to your design.  Compressing the flash load helps too, since communicating the flash to the FPGA can easily be one of the long-poles in the tent.

Dan

[JColvin]

Hi @YanK,

I asked our engineer who did a lot of work on the Adept software and they let me know that it's not possible to add custom devices to Adept directly. However, it is technically possible to use Adept SDK (available for download on the Adept Resource Center) to write your own flash programmer, but that will be a non-trivial task and we don't have any guides or resources specifically dedicated towards creating your own programmer in SDK.

The SDK download material I linked does include Programmer's Reference Manuals for over a dozen Application Protocol Transfers that are supported by Adept SDK as well as a sample for each if that is something you wanted to look into.

Thanks,
JColvin

[YanK]

Hi

Thanks, I understand about the SDK. However, I still don't understand where can I see the list of the devices which are supported already (as an opposite to a "custom devices"). Does such a list exist?

 

[JColvin]

Hi @YanK,

Sort of? There is an internal built-in list but as you can see from other threads on our forum (here's an example where I'm going to pull the rest of this sentence from) that the Adept was developed to provide a lightweight application for programming the FPGA and flash memories on Digilent system boards and was not meant to be a general purpose programmer for all CPLD/FPGA/Flash combinations, and as a result we only tested the device combinations that were on Digilent system boards.

The point of that statement is that during the initial development of Adept (which I don't know the exact year of for the original Adept, but Adept 2 {the current iteration of Adept} was developed sometime between 2010 and 2012), is that extra devices were added to it's internal compatibility table with the through that they would be programmed in the same manner that other devices in their family would be, but that's simply not the case for every device.

So in principle, I could provide the Adept internal list of supported devices, only the devices that were part of Digilent system boards were tested and I don't want to unintentionally provide false advertising for materials that may not be accurate. There's already enough of it that happens that isn't restricted to the Digilent forums.

For what it's worth though, none of the flash chips on any of Digilent's 7-series FPGA boards are directly supported by Adept.

Thank you,
JColvin

[YanK]

Ok I see

I will take all this information to our Xilinx FAE and we will see how to proceed from here.

Thanks

Yan