Today we commited the release candidate for the GECKO3COM firmware version 0.4 to the opencores SVN.

Implemented functionality in this firmware version:

• FW upgrade through USB DFU class
• Works as a USB TMC device (test and measurement class)
• Handles all mandatory IEEE488 and SCPI commands
• FPGA can be configured through USB
• Two different FPGA configuration files can be downloaded to the onboard memory
• Loads one of these configuration files during power on

Next step is to implement the transparent data communication between the USB host and the FPGA. Most of the work for this is done in the Firmware, the IP core needed in the FPGA for the communication is under heavy development. Unfortenately we have to change the developer of the IP core, so we can't promise a release date yet.

When the tests for this version are successfully we will upgrade all GECKO3main modules in the Microlab and update the documentation.

The GECKO3main can now be configured with binary *.bit in MATLAB over the USB interface. The configuration time takes 6 seconds for the XC3S4000 whereas it takes 50 second over parallel JTAG with iMPACT! This is a speedup of 8.3 times!

More Information: Configuring the GECKO3main FPGA

This is the official release of the firmware version 0.3.

FPGA configuration with *.bit files works. header is analyzed and the fpga type is compared to the fpga type value stored in the eeprom. also the file length reported in the header file is used for configuration, no need to adjust this value. just initialize the correct fpga type in the eeprom after production and anything else works.

tested with usb 2.0 high speed and 1.1 full speed; tested with the GECKO3main prototype (1.5 mio gates) and a mass production GECKO3main (4 mio gates)

We've just launched the first project: A remote controlled GECKO3 robot. Click on the image on the left to watch the movie.

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