[Repurposing Arty-A7 as a JTAG ISP]

We want to use the Arty-A7 board to program other Artix hardware. Is it possible to connect the programming pins to another chip when the FPGA from the board has been removed?

[Several died ethernet interfaces on Arty A7 boards]

The problem that I have is concerning devices where the bitstream is stored in the flash memory and nothing is reprogrammed. So the IP license does not apply here. 

[Several died ethernet interfaces on Arty A7 boards]

I am using Vivado 2019. To be clear, the boards work for some time, weeks or even months but suddenly die in terms of ethernet connection.

[Several died ethernet interfaces on Arty A7 boards]

There is nothing really special about our setup or environment. As the boards also die when the temperature is low, there must be something else that is not working correctly. One thing I can tell for sure: the ethernet does not have a general problem, as it is working before it fails.

The periphery we are using is only some I2C, SPI and the XADC as well as the PHY. The power is supplied by the 9V port of the Arty-A7. 

[Several died ethernet interfaces on Arty A7 boards]

Hello,

we are using Arty A7 for prototyping our product which has ethernet connection. After some time, the ethernet connection is not possible anymore and it seems that the PHY is defective.

However, it is not clear what could be the cause for this problem. It seems to be independent of the temperature of the environment. The time until it fails is also very random, from weeks to months.

Is there a way to find the reason for this and identify the failing component? Are there similar reports concerning this problem?