Design And Implementation Of FPGA Teaching Experimental Board Based On EP2C8

With the development of electronic information technology and continuous improvement of electronic technology, programmable logic devices (PLD) are changing with each passing day, from the programmable array logic (PAL) and general array logic (GAL) which is able to complete simple digital logic function at early phase to the later complex programmable logic device (CPLD) and field programmable gate array (FPGA) which can operate large-scale complicated combination and sequential logic nowadays. All IC firms leading by Altera, Xilinx and Lattice make the CPLD/FPGA better and better, the density of devices is much greater, the speed is much faster, logical resources are more and more abundant, becoming the current hot point in the field of circuit design and research because of its outstanding performance. For the great majority of students of engineering and designers, engineering practice is indispensable to study of embedded circuit and R&D of projects. Thus needs the support from hardware development platform.This paper emphasizes the designing of an FPGA teaching and experimental board based on EP2C8Q208C8 which belongs to cycloneâ…¡chip series of Altera, describing circuit schematic design, memory devices and periphery chips selection, PCB design and implementation in every detail from the requirement analysis and general designing plan, and also doing associated functional tests and verifications for the experimental board. Using a modular design concept, we divided the development board into a core board and an expansion board. The core board includes power supply module, clock module, reset module, configuration circuit module, RAM and SDRAM module, JTAG and ASP interface, etc. The expansion board interface is abundant which is easy to carry out experiments and secondary development, including LED, nixie tube, DIP switch, button, dot matrix module interface, LCD 1602 interface, AD and DA module, PS/2 interface, VGA interface, etc. Most pins of the devices are independent and convenient to expand. The clock frequency of the system is 50 MHZ, and the study gives full consideration to the electromagnetic compatibility, signal integrity and power of the development board, distributing and cabling rationally to ensure the board has reliable performance. On the experimental board, the study uses EPCS4 configuration chip which matched with the EP2C8 series of FPGA. It has two user-friendly download interfaces:JTAG and ASP. The users can easily connect the experimental board to the computer with USB-Blaster cable, and can see downloading situation through led indicator. The users can perform the basic or extended experiments and simple engineering practices on this platform, which is convenient to study and apply FPGA and SOPC technology. Finally, the study debugs some modules'function of the experimental board by three concrete examples:VGA color signal display experiment, LCD 1602 display experiment, and Niosâ…¡soft core experiment. Via the debugging, the study can achieve the desired results. The experimental board runs stably and reliably, and is able to meet the needs of universities' teaching and simple design.