Altera top-level files

In order to avoid any mistake that could lead in the destruction of the card (wrong IO configuration) :

  • Is it possible to have top-level quartus files (or better the entire project) ?

An explanation of the process from quartus file (Active serial file ?) to "app.ttf" would also be welcome.

Thanks

Hi... that is coming shortly. i'm going to release a full Quartus "golden" project containing the JTAG bridge and some peripherals. we just need some time to polish it and decide where/how to post it.

I second this. The Vidor boards have started arriving (as I'm sure you've figured out) and it would be great to start playing with them.

Hi. Hopefully I should have that up tomorrow. In the meantime you can play with the ready made images and related libraries you can find here:Arduino ยท GitHub
There's plenty to play with, especially if you have a camera, encoders, neopixel and some good ideas...

Hi everyone!
IP blocks source code and a project template for Vidor are now available at GitHub - vidor-libraries/VidorFPGA: repository for Vidor FPGA IP blocks and projects

please check the readme!

DarioPennisi:
Hi everyone!
IP blocks source code and a project template for Vidor are now available at GitHub - vidor-libraries/VidorFPGA: repository for Vidor FPGA IP blocks and projects

please check the readme!

Thank you Dario! You rock!

Hi Dario, thank you for posting the project files. My boards arrived today. Yay! After reading the readme it seems there is no way to download a bit stream unless you have a USB Blaster cable already. I won't hold you to it but what is the estimated availability of the SAMD Byte blaster emulation?

Hi Glenn,
There are a couple of issues we're dealing with on blaster emulation. The first one is licensing: although USB blaster has been reverse engineered it's still not something we can officially publish unless we have the go from Intel (we're dealing with it). The second one is technical: USB blaster protocol is quite low level so quartus is sending pin states through it. Since also Sam has to send it's own JTAG commands we need to figure out a way to multiplex communication without breaking it. It could work unless you use quartus and Sam in a mutually exclusive way but that is not too nice.
Anyway this is something we have on top of our priorities so make sure it's coming.
One thing that may come much earlier is the possibility to include your fpga in the Arduino sketch. It basically just involves documenting the process by which we created our libraries so should be a quick one.

Hi Dario, thanks for the detailed update. I appreciate the fact you folks are working on alternatives as the genuine Intel/Altera programmers are pricey.

Hi Glen,
you can use the Terasic Blaster which is identical to altera usb blaster and costs a fraction. there are also lots of other "compatible" ones but tend to be slower.
in any case i'm pushing to have vidor to be autonomous so likely integrated blaster it's going to be sooner than later.