Study On The Approach For Remote FPGA Firmware Update Method

Thanks to the development of semiconductor technology, the application of FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) enjoys a growingly extensive prosperity. Nowadays, the mainstream FPGA with a fully functional in the market, not only has a huge improvement in the number of logical gate, but also equipped with a large number of core processors. But because the FPGA is the device that its firmware can’t be saved when power down, each FPGA needs a specific memory to store the FPGA firmware which is loaded into the FPGA when power on. The usual method is using local USB-JTAG to update. But in some special environment, when the technicians can not enter into caused by the extensive irradiation or the serious conditions, we need to update FPGA by remote method.Aiming to solve this problem, a method of remote updating FPGA firmware is designed. In the program, FPGA is designed into a system-on-Chip(SOC) using MicroBlaze soft-core and EMAC (Ethernet Access Controller) IP core. The SOC with a phycical layer chip and memory constitute a hardware platform which has the function of remote updating FPGA firmware. In the software design, by transplanting the open source LwIP protocol stack, the system realizes the network communication function. On the other side, FPGA simulates JTAG timing, so the system realizes to update firmware of the chip which is connected to the JTAG chain.The thesis firstly introduces the features of FPGA and the traditional firmware updating methods, analyzes the basic requirements of remote firmware updating, as well as designs a systematic solution to realize the goals. Then, the thesis respectively makes a discussion on the software and hardware in details. Among which, the design of hardware circuit consist of power module, memory module, FPGA module and Ethernet module. The software circuit mainly includes realizations of LwIP protocol stack and realization of JTAG configuration. Last but not least, the thesis the thesis has a performance test in hardware and software systematically. The research results show that the design is reliable and stable, and basically achieves the design requirements.