Among the low cost FPGA development tools sits one name that we are all familiar with. FTDI who are well known for their range of interface chips, from USB to just about anything they are true a leader. However they also make a number of FPGA modules that allow for design, development and experimentation. One of these FPGA modules is the Morph-IC-II FPGA development module.
The board is quite simple in design and cut though lots of fancy extra hardware and supplies you with juts the core features. This development kit comes with FTDI’s own FT2232H interface IC and a Altera Cyclone II FPGA. The board comes on a single PCB with some 80 external I/O pins and on board 50Mhz clock generator. Programming is also available via a separate 10 way header allowing JTAG interface as well as via the PCB headers.
The Cyclone supplied is a E2PC5F256C8N that has 4,608 Logic Elements and 26 Logic RAM Elements (119Kbits). The FTDI data sheet states there is an EEPROM for storing configuration. At first glance I guessed this was for storing the FPGA configuration so the board can work in standalone mode. However this is for the FT2232H which needs this EEPROM to store its own configuration details.
As this review is about the development module I will ignore the Cyclone and Altera programming software, other than to say the Altera Software I find very good, if a little difficult to install. I would also consider the selection of Cyclone a little on the cheap on FTDI’s part and would have liked to have seen a device with more logic elements but in the same foot print and number of IO.
The out the box experience was a little limp and unexciting. Supplied in a small cardboard box it had what I would call basic packaging but no more. The board comes with PCB connectors allowing you to make up a PCB and fit the FTDI module into it. The board its self is well made and the I/O come out vie the double row connectors along each side. This however I was not impressed with. The device is physically too large to plug into a prototype bread board and if I did, then I’d end up shorting out the rows of connectors.
Ignoring this small point I moved on to test programming the board. Having had Altera Quartus already installed I then look to the box to see what I needed. The Quick Start guide that had been rammed into the small box was unfolded and examined. The guide is a A4 sheet folded over, this meant that technically page one was on page four and started from page two. So having worked this out I read though the document. There are no drivers supplied on a CD so if you need them you will have to visit the FTDI site to obtain them. Some indication of a link was given but its hard to click on a blue underlined link when it’s on a sheet of paper so had to wander around the site to find these myself. I also found that I have to download a programming tool also - again not totally clear where this was and while I was there I downloaded the full user guide. In my view these should have all been provided.
The programming tool surprised me as I had sort of guessed that the FT2232H in USB to JTAG mode would be recognised by Altera Quartus and allow for direct programming. However this is not the case and any configurations generated need to be converted tin a raw configuration format. This is possible by setting it up in Altera, just not something I expected. Once that's done You have to use the supplied, sorry, downloaded tool from FTDI that pushes the configuration over to the chip.
Getting the tool to work was a puzzle in its-self unfortunately. FTDI have supplied source code and examples of how to interface with the FT2232H over the USB interface. I don't have a C compiler or LabView so could not use these files. In the Delphi folder I did find the MorphicLd excitable; however it would not run as there was a missing DLL. This I found in another folder so once I did a bit of copying and pasting I got the tool to work and program the FPGA.
There was also another tool in the same folder which was quite good, this is similar to the Adrduino hardware test tool and allows you to turn pins high or low or make them inputs to test. Quite useful.
I was at this point a little stuck having generated some code - the reason being that the board comes with no LED’s, buttons or anything connected to the FPGA that I can use to play with. In fact I spent a whole hour building a basic breakout board (remember it does not fit in a bread board!) just to test a few LED’s and switch inputs. Having said that it all worked with no issues.
The data sheet spends a lot of time talking about the FPGA and the hardware side of connecting it up but I did wonder at this point if this is what the FTDI module is even about.!? Having seen the example code I wondered if the kit was meant to be about the FTDI FT2232H chip and not the FPGA at all. Then again when you read the first part of the data sheet you see it talks about the morphing functionality it can be used for.
This is where the device can be reprogrammed on the fly so that it can perform different functions as required. From a designer's point of view this may be a cool way of doing things but as an electronics design engineer I can’t see this as a real option for most of us.
So I find myself a little confused as to what they aim of the kit truly was. Personally I think its a good kit for someone that wants to get at and use the Cyclone that does not mind doing more hardware. Its a sort of a stepping stone between some of the other kits on the market and placing the FPGA in your own hardware. Its a more expensive than some of the other kits on the market and is not packing much of a punch with the Cyclone II chip. So in summary I can only say its ok, but did not blow me away and given the choice would buy a different kit.
Paul
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