Spartan®-3 FPGA Starter Kit board fails to initialize correctly in ISE 14.7

[pgmaser]

Hi All,

Its been a while in setting up Compilers and Synthesizers.  No problem setting up the Spartan 3E 1600 it was on the list in ISE 14.7. However, the Spartan®-3 FPGA Starter Kit board has a four-character, seven segments LED display controlled by Spartan 3 FPGA is not on the list.

What would it take to build up a library or configuration in ISE 14.7 . to select this Spartan 3 Board.  Characteristics the compiler needs Chip and Package number as well as the Temp Code, maybe.  Most importantly it needs to know where Jtag is and how it's connected. RAM and ROM chips and addresses going to the FPGA.  

There is a place for New and Old Starter Kits. However, that has failed to work plus Xilinx has no way of knowing where the ROM and RAM not unless I share this in the UCF file. The data sheet has the DRAM not sure if the PROM is list or JTAG

I am not sure how to set this up.   I have the User Guide here.  No real instructions on how to build this list of custom or pre-bought boards for the ISE 14.7.  The error I am getting

is program failed to load.

Any help would be appreciated!

Phil

[JColvin]

Hi @pgmaser,

None of our Spartan 3 boards (link to their resource Centers here and here) have a 4-character character seven segment display, though they both have an LCD character screen. Could you provide the link of what board you are thinking of?

I am not certain of what all ISE would specifically need for it's version of the board-files that are used in their Vivado software, aside from the details you mentioned. Neither Digilent nor Xilinx created this type of file for the Spartan 3E boards though.

The User Guide for the Spartan 3e talks about the PROM, RAM, and JTAG connections; that guide is available on the right hand side of the Resource Center under Documentation, linked for your convenience here.

Beyond that though, we don't have much advice for creating the prebuilt library as ISE stopped being actively worked on back in 2013.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,
JColvin

[pgmaser]

Hi JColvin,

here is link to a board Spartan 3 Board.  Old one.  I am trying to get ISE 14.7 to work and communicate to this board via downloading fails.  I might need to build a configuration file for this device. now sure how.   Memory and Ram and jtag pins and the Done LED have to be listed somewhere I am thinking?  Or maybe I am going down the wrong path?

I show some of this work here as well.   XC3S1000 -4FT256   I think.  i don't think its supported.

 

[JColvin]

Hi @pgmaser,

I would look at the Spartan 3 Resource Center then which has the Xilinx made user guide (including details on the SRAM and flash). I don't believe you have control over the Done LED. Otherwise, I would recommend that you check that the FPGA configuration mode is set up correctly (as described in the Xilinx User Guide). Otherwise, there are also a number of projects for the Spartan 3 listed in it's Resource Center as well.

What is the purpose of the second link you provided? It seems to have no relevance to FPGAs.

Thanks,
JColvin