Programming modules via JTAG

[Brumrock]

Are there standalone programs out there that can be used to program a Diligent FPGA module (I'm using an A7-35T) that doesn't require Vivado? I want to send *.bit and *.bin files to folks using the hardware without them having to resort to a full Vivado installation. Recommendations welcome. Thanks!

[zygot]

I've been using Digilent's Adept Utility for Windows to configure FPGA devices for a long long time. It's easier and more convenient than any of the Xilinx configuration tools through the years. It's especially more convenient than Vivado Hardware Manager if you have more than one device to configure at once. As long as it supports your device it's great. If it doesn't support your device, you can ( usually ) modify one text file to do that; I've done this.

For Linux users there is no such GUI application but Linux users would rather type than demean themselves with a GUI application... or so I've been told. I do a lot of FPGA development on Linux hosts but as my brain has trouble herding the cats, er fingers, I generally just use the FPGA vendor tools. So, I'm not a Linux aficionado, just someone who sometimes need to get away from Windows. Edited August 26, 2022 by zygot

[JColvin]

Hi @Brumrock,

Since you are using a Digilent board, I would also recommend using the Adept system like @zygot mentioned, https://digilent.com/reference/software/adept/start. It was originally developed as an alternate option to ISE iMPACT, so it has not received much attention now that the Vivado Hardware Manager is directly integrated into Vivado, and only supports a limited set of devices. You can modify some files to let detect and program other devices, but Digilent has not done extensive testing to see any programming sequences for other device families outside of our boards are fully accurate/compatible.

One notable limitation with Adept though is that you are not able to program flash memory on our boards (.bin file or otherwise).
I know Adept will accept a .svf file which theoretically would program the flash, but I personally have not gotten a .svf to successfully configure a board in the Vivado environment either, so I have to use Vivado to load a configuration file to flash.

Xilinx does offer a Lab Edition version of Vivado (basically just the Hardware Manager of Vivado so you can configure devices, but not develop anything) which may be a good option in that instance, though I won't be surprised if that is also too large of a file to ask end users to download as well.

Thanks,
JColvin