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Altera_Forum
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12 years ago

What do I need before design custom board? I'm a software guy

Hello all, I need to build a custom board with fpga. Could someone show me where to start to build your custom board? I have a fpga chip and what do I need to hook up the chip, power, pins on...
Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
12 years ago

Hi Sean,

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Ok. I have a schematic that has USB Blaster pins, to EPCS4N EEPROM and to FPGA design board. But now, my manager wants to use Non-volatile memory to get cheaper (I guess). Does Altera have that non-volatile memory to replace EEPROM.

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The EPCS4 is SPI Flash (not EEPROM). The "Altera" part is a rebranded SPI Flash with ID that matches parts from Micron (Numonyx). Search the group for SPI flash and you'll get examples of part numbers.

If you want the ultimate in cheap, you could just force your end-user to configure the FPGA via JTAG each time they use it. Though even in that case I would recommend including the PCB footprint for the EPCS flash regardless of whether you load it or not.

You can also just interface the FPGA to a USB-to-FIFO chip from FTDI and bit-bang the device to configure it. FTDI's Morphic-II module has details on what you can do.

Cheers,

Dave