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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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14 years ago

BeMicro SDK USB connection to host

Does anyone know if you can connect from user space on the FPGA out to the host computer via the USB connection? On the block diagram, the arrow from the programmer to the FPGA goes one direction. ...
Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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14 years ago

Thanks!

* JTAG-USB ... interesting approach! Seems like that would work fine for most applications, but not have great bandwidth. It's a little more complex of a design; with that level of effort, it may just be easier/more fun to get the Ethernet MAC working.

* Not sure how difficult it would be to write my own Mobile DRAM controller; it's obviously not entirely trivial else they would be able to support a $7500 price tag. Anything is possible; it's just a matter of how much time/energy I'd want to invest into that vice my actual hobby goal.

* The Terasic Nano also looks like a good option as well; the difference is the external connectivity. The BeMicro has a built-in Ethernet MAC, but the Nano has easily accessible GPIO headers. Sparkfun has both USB (FTDI chipset) and Ethernet (MAC or PHY chips) boards for about $35 each. With the Nano's easily accessible IO, it would be super easy to connect out on a link independent from the JTAG port.

Thanks for the insight!