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Altera Corporation
13
Configuration Devices for SRAM-Based LUT Devices Data Sheet
When configuring APEX II, APEX 20K, Mercury, ACEX 1K, and
FLEX 10K devices with cascaded EPC2 or EPC1 devices, the position of
the EPC2 or EPC1 device in the chain determines its operation. Similarly,
when configuring FLEX 6000 devices with cascaded EPC1 devices, the
position of the EPC1 device in the chain determines its operation. When
the first or master device in a configuration device chain is powered-up or
reset and the
nCS
pin is driven low, the master device controls
configuration. The master device supplies all clock pulses to one or more
LUT-based PLDs and to any subsequent slave devices during
configuration. The master EPC2 or EPC1 device also provides the first
stream of data to the LUT-based PLD during multi-device configuration.
After the master EPC2 or EPC1 device finishes sending configuration
data, the master EPC2 or EPC1 device drives its
nCASC
pin low, which
drives the
nCS
pin of the first slave EPC2 or EPC1 device low. This action
causes the slave EPC2 or EPC1 device to send configuration data to the
LUT-based PLDs.
The master EPC2 or EPC1 device clocks all subsequent slave devices until
configuration is complete. Once all configuration data is transferred and
the
nCS
pin on the master EPC2 or EPC1 device is driven high by the LUT-
based PLD’s
CONF_DONE
pin, the master EPC2 or EPC1 device clocks 16
additional cycles to initialize the LUT-based PLD(s). The master EPC2 or
EPC1 device then goes into zero-power (idle) state. If
nCS
on the master
EPC2 or EPC1 device is driven high before all configuration data is
transferred, or if
nCS
is not driven high after all configuration data is
transferred, the master EPC2 or EPC1 device drives the APEX 20K,
Mercury, ACEX 1K, and FLEX device’s
nSTATUS
pin low, indicating a
configuration error.
Configuration automatically restarts if the project is compiled with the
Auto-Restart Configuration on Frame Error
option turned on in the
MAX+PLUS II software’s
Global Project Device
Options
dialog box
(Assign menu).
Figure 5
shows an APEX II, APEX 20K, Mercury, ACEX 1K, FLEX 10K, or
FLEX 6000 device configured with two EPC2 or EPC1 devices. Additional
EPC2 or EPC1 devices can be added by connecting
nCASC
to
nCS
of the
subsequent slave EPC2 or EPC1 device in the chain and connecting
DCLK
,
DATA
, and
OE
in parallel.
1
A mixture of APEX 20K, Mercury, ACEX 1K, FLEX 10K, and
FLEX 6000 devices can be configured in the same chain. A
mixture of FLEX 10K, FLEX 10KA, FLEX 10KE, and 5.0-V and
3.3-V FLEX 6000 devices can be configured in the same chain. See
“Configuration Chain with Multiple Voltage Levels” on page 25
.