Forum Discussion
Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
12 years agoIt might be easier to add a UART to the design and bring out the TX and RX to off board level shifters. Note that if this is only for debugging the PC will work with 0-5V RS-232 levels. I would never use this non-standard RS-232 anywhere else though. Consider using a USB-Serial chip (e.g. FTDI-232BB) to not only be able use the 0-5V RX/TX but to give you instant connectivity to the PC using USB. All of our Altera designs incorporate this chip for debugging and having a console/monitor available in the field.
I have replaced the Altera JTAG serial code (running on the NIOS II) with my own code because their code is slow and bloated, but I use this input/output only with the NIOS II console. I have not seen an application where the PC can communicate with the JTAG directly. I'm sure it's possible. BillA