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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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12 years ago

Need some quick advice and direction on FPGA uses for quadcopters

My Altera Cyclone IV has been a great education board. However, every-time power is shut off I lose my program. I was just curious if their are any FPGA's out there that don't lose their program when power is shut off and that may be available in a more "smaller" compact size suitable for projects. I'm a beginner so take it easy on me if these are dumb questions. I was told that FPGA's would deliver faster program execution and more precise timing. Therefore, I was wanting to use an FPGA on a quadcopter but don't understand how it's going to keep it's programmable information if power is shut on and off. Could someone point me in the direction on some information pertaining to my questions. I would appreciate any help you might have.

3 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    12 years ago

    FPGAs are volatile devices - they require configuring every time they are powered on. That explains the behaviour you're seeing.

    The platform you're using will have some form of non-volatile memory that can be programmed with your code, allowing the FPGA to boot from it every time the board powers up.

    There are plenty of small FPGA development boards. Have a look through those listed on Altera's website - they list their own development boards and those made by partner companies. I'm sure you'll be able to find one small enough for use on a quadcopter.

    I'd suggest you start by looking at the DE0-nano...

    http://www.altera.com/products/devkits/partners/kit-terasic-de0-nano.html (http://www.altera.com/products/devkits/partners/kit-terasic-de0-nano.html)
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    12 years ago

    If you dont want to use some flash to program your FPGA on power up, look into the MAX II devices, which are non-volotile (but are very small CPLD devices).

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    12 years ago

    --- Quote Start ---

    FPGAs are volatile devices - they require configuring every time they are powered on.

    --- Quote End ---

    Not all of them.

    Actel and Lattice FPGAs are flash based rather than SRAM based so keep their configuration during a power cycle and are pretty much 'instant on'.

    The downside is that they are slower and their tools are less mature than Altera/Xilinx's.

    You can swap between Altera and Xilinx (and to a lesser extent Lattice) devices and they'll pretty much do what you expect. I had a world of

    pain trying to re-target an Altera Cyclone III design (that wasn't particularly pushing any boundaries) to an Actel device. Luckily the client

    changes his mind!

    To allow an SRAM device to keep its configuration after a power cycle you need a configuration prom to provide the bitstream at power up.

    Nial.