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Re: [ts-7000] TS-7350 FPGA bitstream

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Subject: Re: [ts-7000] TS-7350 FPGA bitstream
From: Michael Schmidt <>
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:49:08 -0700
Andrea Galbusera wrote:
> Hi all,
> I have a concern about loading a new bitstream on the 7350 FPGA. The
> documentation I'm referencing is the writeup linked in [1] and
> referenced by the board preliminary manual.
> 
> My concern is basically related to the following sentence, which
> appear at the end of such document and apply to the shown update
> procedure:
> 
> "The above code would typically be put in the /linuxrc file"
> 
> Here it comes my big concern. Does the given procedure need to be
> executed at every boot? That sentence suggest me to answer positively,
> while I expected the tool load_ts7350 to update the internal FPGA
> flash with the new bitstream, making it available at next reboot.

All the bitstreams we provide update the internal RAM inside the part, 
and must be loaded on every boot.

I was not involved in the development but I understand from talking to 
the engineer that we ran into some issues during development of 
load_ts7350 whereby loading a bitstream into flash from a user-space 
program makes it very easy to brick the board.

> Since I only have the binary of load_ts7350 and I don't know how to
> check which bitstream version is installed on the FPGA (is there any
> way?), could please anybody clarify if I'm having the new bitstream
> available at reboot or not?

It is not possible to "read back" the bitstream from the FPGA.  This is 
a security feature and part of the design of the FPGA which we have no 
control over.  The best way to determine if the new bitstream is loaded 
is to have a unique register value (e.g. revision number) somewhat that 
you can read.  However this is dependant on whoever updates the HDL code 
to do this.

> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Andrea
> 
> 
> [1] http://oz.embeddedarm.com/~michael/support/bitstream.html

  ______   Best Regards,
|__  __/                  Michael Schmidt
    ||                   Software Engineer
    ||echnologic Systems (EmbeddedARM.com)
    || (480)        16525 East Laser Drive
    |/ 837-5200   Fountain Hills, AZ 85268
        http://oz.embeddedarm.com/~michael


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