JTAG to obsolete Lattice MACH131?

[EML]

I've got a strange one. Someone's asked me to reprogram an old
MACH131SP device, dating from about '95-98. Are any of you still doing
this? Any advice? I don't yet know if they have sources (presumably
Abel?) or a bitstream.

I've got lots of old Lattice software, dating from about 95-2000 - an
ispExpert box (floppies probably lost), and a couple of ispDS+ Abel
boxes, with lots of floppies, but possibly only supporting pLSI 1K,
2K, and 3K families.

I can't find any old JTAG adapters, but I can presumably get access
with a current Xilinx Platform Cable USB II.

Any thoughts? BTW, I haven't been here for a few years - is this still
a good place for FPGAs? What about Stackoverflow/etc?

Thanks -

Evan

 

[Martin Thompson]

EML <nospam@nospam.com> writes:

I've got a strange one. Someone's asked me to reprogram an old
MACH131SP device, dating from about '95-98. Are any of you still doing
this? Any advice? I don't yet know if they have sources (presumably
Abel?) or a bitstream.

I've got lots of old Lattice software, dating from about 95-2000 - an
ispExpert box (floppies probably lost), and a couple of ispDS+ Abel
boxes, with lots of floppies, but possibly only supporting pLSI 1K,
2K, and 3K families.

I can't find any old JTAG adapters, but I can presumably get access
with a current Xilinx Platform Cable USB II.

If you can find parallel port, there's probably the wiring diagram for a
PP to JTAG cable - I know I used a Vantis cable to program some oldish
Lattice chips using ispLever Classic recently.

Any thoughts? BTW, I haven't been here for a few years - is this still
a good place for FPGAs? What about Stackoverflow/etc?

There's still people here

Electronics.stackexchange also covers FPGAs some of the time:

http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/fpga

and there's a "logic design" proposal on stackexchange also:

http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/20632/logic-design?referrer=ZolqNc0edhvG1iedac--IA2

Cheers,
Martin

--
martin.j.thompson@trw.com
TRW Conekt - Consultancy in Engineering, Knowledge and Technology
http://www.conekt.co.uk/capabilities/39-electronic-hardware

 

[Gabor]

Martin Thompson wrote:

EML <nospam@nospam.com> writes:

I've got a strange one. Someone's asked me to reprogram an old
MACH131SP device, dating from about '95-98. Are any of you still doing
this? Any advice? I don't yet know if they have sources (presumably
Abel?) or a bitstream.

I've got lots of old Lattice software, dating from about 95-2000 - an
ispExpert box (floppies probably lost), and a couple of ispDS+ Abel
boxes, with lots of floppies, but possibly only supporting pLSI 1K,
2K, and 3K families.

I can't find any old JTAG adapters, but I can presumably get access
with a current Xilinx Platform Cable USB II.

If you can find parallel port, there's probably the wiring diagram for a
PP to JTAG cable - I know I used a Vantis cable to program some oldish
Lattice chips using ispLever Classic recently.

Any thoughts? BTW, I haven't been here for a few years - is this still
a good place for FPGAs? What about Stackoverflow/etc?

There's still people here

Electronics.stackexchange also covers FPGAs some of the time:

http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/fpga

and there's a "logic design" proposal on stackexchange also:

http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/20632/logic-design?referrer=ZolqNc0edhvG1iedac--IA2

Cheers,
Martin

Lattice also has user forums, but I don't see a lot of activity there.
The last time I used a MACH131 or similar part, it was in a PLCC package
and I programmed it on a programming platform, probably from Data I/O.
You should still be able to do it with a newer box like the BP1400
or whatever the latest BP-Micro programming system is. The data
file for these parts was in JEDEC format if I remember correctly.

-- Gabor