CVS FPGA

[SciWare]

Hi

I'm working on a project which involves a CVS-1456. For this project we would like to emulate 3 serial ports on the FPGA. I've had success emulating one serial port but it is using 60% SLICE, so adding another port just pushes the limit. I'm having a deeper look at the CVS and I have a few questions that I hope someone can help me with. It looks like the CVS-1456 has two FPGA targets  the 1M one that I was currently downloading to and what appears to be a 2M.

I discovered that there are two FPGA targets that I can select IMAQIO-1 and IMAQIO-5, If I select IMAQIO-5 I achieve 60% SLICE but if I select IMAQIO-1 I achieve 35%

When I call my code from RT using Open FPGA Reference I currently use IMAQIO (ie right click on vi and select FPGA and then select IMAQIO) and the FPGA code is currently compiled to IMAQIO-5 then this works but of course I can only have the one port.

What I want to be able to do is also use IMAQIO-1 I tried calling the FPGA code using Open FPGA Reference with the target set to CVS instead of IMAQIO but I get error messages -63003 Download: FPGA VI needs to be recompiled for this target.

I'm unable to find any documentation which discusses the FPGA targets IMAQIO-1 and IMAQIO-5.

Thanks in advance.

Message Edited by SciWare on 10-05-2005 01:46 AM

[Aaron B.]

Hello Curt,

Although two FPGA targets (IMAQIO-1 and IMAQIO-5) will show up, you only have one physical target on the CVS. If your CVS was purchased within the last few months, you will have the IMAQIO-5; otherwise, you will have the IMAQIO-1. You can tell which one you have by looking at your actual device target. In addition to the two targets that should both have the words "(Compile Only)" after them, your actual CVS device will be listed as a possible target as well. It will have an IP address and will specify whether it has an IMAQIO-1 or IMAQIO-5. You can precompile code using the appropriate "Compile Only" target.

Also, when you select your target with the Open FPGA Reference function, you need to choose IMAQIO for the target instead of CVS. The later is only used for legacy purposes if you are using an old version of RIO. This is likely the reason you are getting the error. I hope you find this information helpful. Take care!

Regards,

Aaron B.
National Instruments

[SciWare]

Thanks for the info Aaron.

What was the reason for downgrading the FPGA size? The documentation still says it is a 1M FPGA.

Cheers

[Aaron B.]

Hello Curt,

The switch was made because we realized that having more than one type of FPGA on our different CVS devices could lead to confusion. Because only the 1456 had the 1M FPGA and it appeared that 500K gates was sufficient space for most of our CVS users, we made the decision to standardize all of our CVS devices to the 500K FPGA. Our 1456 documentation needs to reflect this change. Thank you for bringing the situation to our attention. Could you please let us know which document you are referring to that needs to be updated? Thank you and take care!

Regards,

Aaron B.
National Instruments

[SciWare]

Hi Aaron

When I was researching what was required to program the FPGA on the CVS-1456 I came across the following document

LabVIEW FPGA Support for NI CVS-1450 Series Compact Vision System

This document refers to the CVS-1456 having a 1M FPGA.

Thanks for your time Aaron.

Regards

[Aaron B.]

Hello Curt,

Thank you for letting me know. I see exactly where in the document you are refering to and I will make sure that it is updated. Thanks and take care!

Regards,

Aaron B.
National Instruments