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Altera_Forum
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10 years ago

MAX10: JTAG Instruction Set - Understanding what USBBlaster is doing - later ISP

I want to do In-System-Programming for the MAX10 over JTAG. As pre-work I would like to understand what the USBBlaster is doing when using the Quartus Programmer to load a .pof-File onto the MA...
Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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10 years ago

The USB-Blaster (I suspect you've worked out) is a JTAG host controlled over USB from it's host - e.g. a PC. It simply generates the appropriate JTAG commands fed to it from it's host.

As for what JTAG commands the Quartus programmer has it generate - this is not (completely) documented. You've clearly found a few...

JTAG is not really intended to be used in this way. Nor is MAX10 really intended for in-system programming in this way. That's not to say it can't be done - it can.

There are FPGA families that are intended to be programmed from a micro (or similar) - e.g. Cyclone. These devices lend themselves very well to this. However, they don't do this using JTAG.

So, why MAX10? And why are you looking to solve this with JTAG hosted from a micro?

Cheers,

Alex