BeMicro SDK USB connection to host

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Does anyone know if you can connect from user space on the FPGA out to the host computer via the USB connection?

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The BeMicro-SDK implements an Altera USB-Blaster for programming the FPGA via USB. This interface can be used to communicate with applications, but the resources Altera provides are a bit limited in my opinion.

Here's what you can do; if you have a NIOS FPGA soft-core within the FPGA, then you can implement a JTAG-UART to communicate between the FPGA processor and your PC. However, rather than creating a Virtual COM Port on the PC so that you can use a regular UART, you have to use Altera's nios-terminal program. There are some DLLs that others have managed to get working too. Search the forum. Altera also has a component called a virtual JTAG interface (sld_virtual_jtag). This gives you direct control of logic within the FPGA via the JTAG interface. The software support on the host is again limited to Altera tools, eg., quartus_stp, however, you can write a Tcl server and then control your hardware remotely from other software.

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Is there an alternative to the licensed Mobile DRAM controller? 30 days is generous, but for someone just looking to have fun, the IP core's cost is prohibitive.

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How hard is it to write your own? I looked at the data sheet, and it didn't look much more complex than an SDRAM controller. I just haven't had time to look into it more.

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$79 is a great price tag for hobbyist entry, but the board appears to be designed for professionals with access to ethernet and the costly memory controller. Anyone's advise would be really helpful to know what I'm may be getting into!

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I have the BeMicro-SDK and the BeMicro. The BeMicro is a bit nicer with respect to communications in that it has a FTDI FT2232 for the USB interface, so you can access the board via a COM port. However, the USB-Blaster is some custom job written by Arrow, and I'm not sure that it works under anything by Windows XP 32-bit (and Linux). The other option that looks pretty nice is the Terasic DE0-nano. I suspect that has full support via Altera IP cores.

Cheers,

Dave