BeMicro FPGA-based MCU Evaluation Board

Hi Daniel,

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I have only the BeMicro board, no connector, nor protoboard. Is it possibile to do something to learn how to use FPGAs only with this or if I should get at least the connector.

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Do you have the BeMicro (red PCB, Cyclone III device, with an Arrow USB-Blaster) or the BeMicro-SDK (blue PCB, Cyclone IV device, with a USB-Blaster interface)? I have both, so can give you some example code.

What HDL language are you starting to learn? (I have examples in VHDL, but can help you convert them to Verilog).

The BeMicro has an FTDI FT2232 dual-channel USB-to-serial/parallel interface. The first channel is used for JTAG, the second can be used for serial. Under the device managed in the advanced properties for channel B, enable VCP (the virtual COM port). Then remove and reinsert the board. Channel B will then have a COM number assigned.

Now create a design with

tx <= rx;

Assign these two pins, tri-state all unused pins, and download it.

Bring up hyperterminal, turn off hardware and software handshaking, and type something in. The characters are echoed by the board.

Cool eh!

I can send you a UART-to-Avalon-MM master that you can drop into an SOPC system with a PIO component to toggle LEDs.

Cheers,

Dave