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Dominique_'s avatar
Dominique_
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5 years ago

EPM7064LC programming on my own

Hello,
I'm a hobbyist in electronics. I own a few EMP7064LC84-15 CPLD Chip (Altera MAX 7000 series) which do not have ISP feature (no JTAG programming). I found general purpose "inexpensive" chip programmers for sale which coast is nearly one thousand of dollars, i.e. far too expensive to program just one type of CPLD.
I'd consider throwing those chips away and affording some from the MAX7000S series (which do have ISP capabilities) instead.

The other option I may have is to generate the appropriate signal waveform to program those non-ISP chips (Windows software and VHDL programming are not an issue to me). I browsed the web for a while and I didn't find any helpful specifications or data sheets. I just could figure out that a 12V voltage source is required, and I wondered if someone you would be so kind as to provide me with the documentation which would give me an opportunity to program those few CPLD chips instead of getting rid of them. Hoping that such information are not highly confidential.

Thanks in advance
Dominique

3 Replies

    • Dominique_'s avatar
      Dominique_
      Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
      5 years ago

      Hello,

      sorry, I wasn't clear enough. I have read nearly all the documentation about MAX7000 including the link you provided. Actually in this document just after the "ISP programming" section (page 16), you can find the "Programming with external hardware" (page 21).

      I've already programmed MAX7000S with the ISP feature through JTAG (with a self made byte blaster cable) successfully, but the three chips I have don't have ISP feature (EPM7064LC). The "external hardware" this document is talking about would certainly do the job but it (or any other from other manufacturers) is too expensive, and I would like to design the circuitry by myself, just to program the EMP7064, assuming I have all the programming data in a .pof file (generated by Quartus II software). As far as I could see, nothing in this document nor in any related document (ex : "Altera Programming Hardware Data Sheet") gives the slightest clue about how to do this.

      So, given some programming digital data, I would like to know what voltage to apply on what EMP7064 pin upon what timing to actually program my EPM7064LC chip, avoiding the cost of those expensive "external hardware".

      I found a web link (http://elm-chan.org/works/avrx/report_e.html) talking about the information I'm looking for, which is called "parallel programming mode". But it concerns AVR (Atmel) not Altera chips.

      Thanks Dominique

      • ak6dn's avatar
        ak6dn
        Icon for Regular Contributor rankRegular Contributor
        5 years ago

        Programming information on the EPM7000 series for the non-JTAG devices was not made public, only available via NDA back in the old days to test equipment manufacturers.

        Unless you literally have hundreds of EPM7064 devices you want to program going down that path will not be worthwhile. You can buy a modern device programmer like the EEtools TopMaxII/III with the appropriate adapter (ie, PLCC I'm assuming) but it will set you back close to US$1000 in total.

        I would recommend scrapping the older parallel devices, and pursue the JTAG ISP approach as you have done.

        And by the way, Microchip/Atmel still has their ATF15xxASV series parts in production that are functional replacements for the EPM7xxxS series (32,64,96,128). And they have their POF2JED tool that allows you to take an existing Altera .POF file and convert it to .JED to program their devices via JTAG.

        Just my 2c.