Hello. My name is Ume Onigiri.
You all know that FPGAs are programmable devices.
There are actually different types of "Program".
Programming and Configuration.
What do they mean?
In this article, we will learn the difference between the two.
Programming
Writing design data to the configuration ROM external to the FPGA.
The two are broadly classified as follows
1) Writing directly to the configuration ROM
2) Writing through the FPGA
Since the FPGA stores design data in SRAM, it is a "volatile device" that loses its data when the power is turned off.
Therefore, it is necessary to supply data to the FPGA every time the power is turned on.
The configuration ROM stores this data.
The figure below shows the configuration ROM.
Configuration
Configuration is the process of writing design data to the FPGA.
There are various configuration modes.
For more information about configuration modes, please refer to this page, as last year's seniors have summarized them.
It can be roughly divided into the following two categories
1) Writing from configuration ROM
2) Writing directly to the FPGA
The diagram below shows the two types of writing.
The files used for programming and configuration are also different.
- When programming directly to ROM, a pof file is used.
- jic file for writing via FPGA
- When writing directly to the FPGA for configuration, use the sof file
The pof file and jic file required for programming can be converted from the sof file using the Quartus® II Convert Programing Files function (File menu).
Menu in Quartus
Configuration with Convert Programming Files
When programming and configuring, it is important to know
- What is each one trying to do
- What process is involved
- What files should be used
I would like to make sure that I check the following information before I do anything.
New Engineer's Blush Blog Article List