DE2 Control Panel

Download DE2 control panel files (zip file)

The DE2 board comes with a Control Panel facility that allows a user to access various components on the board through a USB connection from a host computer. This document shows how to setup the control panel, presents some of the basic functions of the Control Panel, and describes its structure in block diagram form.

Control Panel Setup

To run the Control Panel application, you must configure the Cyclone II FPGA by downloading DE2_USB_API.sof into the FPGA and also execute DE2_control_panel.exe on the host computer.

Both of these files are available on the DE2 System CD-ROM that accompanies the DE2 board, in the directory DE2_control_panel. They are also available in the link at the top of the page. Of course, these files may already have been installed to some other location on your computer system.

To activate the Control Panel, perform the following steps:

1. Setup up the DE2-board as follows. Connect the supplied USB cable to the USB Blaster port. Connect the 9V power supply, and turn the power switch ON. Set the RUN/PROG switch to the RUN position.

2. Program the Cyclone II FPGA as follows. Start the Quartus II software. Select Tools – Programmer to reach the window in Figure 1. Click on Add File and in the pop-up window that appears select the DE2_USB_API.sof file. Next, click on the Program/Configure box which results in the image displayed in the figure. Now, click Start to download the configuration file into the FPGA.

3. Start the executable DE2_control_panel.exe on the host computer. The Control Panel user interface shown in Figure 2 will appear.

4. Open the USB port by clicking Open – Open USB Port 0. The DE2 Control Panel application will list all the USB ports that connect to DE2 boards. The DE2 Control Panel can control up to 4 DE2 boards using the USB links. The Control Panel will occupy the USB port until you close that port; you cannot use Quartus II to download a configuration file into the FPGA until you close the USB port.

5. The Control Panel is now ready for use; experiment by setting the value of some 7-segment display and observing the result on the DE2 board.

The concept of the DE2 Control Panel is illustrated in Figure 3. The IP that performs the control functions is implemented in the FPGA device. It communicates with the Control Panel window, which is active on the host computer, via the USB Blaster link. The graphical interface is used to issue commands to the control circuitry. The provided IP handles all requests and performs data transfers between the computer and the DE2 board.

The DE2 Control Panel can be used to change the values displayed on 7-segment displays, light up LEDs, talk to the PS/2 keyboard, read/write the SRAM, Flash Memory and SDRAM, load an image pattern to display as VGA output, load music to the memory and play music via the audio DAC. The feature of reading/writing a byte or an entire file from/to the Flash Memory allows the user to develop multimedia applications (Flash Audio Player, Flash Picture Viewer) without worrying about how to build a Flash Memory Programmer.

Controlling the LEDs, 7-Segment Displays and LCD Display

A simple function of the Control Panel is to allow setting the values displayed on LEDs, 7-segment displays, and the LCD character display.

In the window shown in Figure 2, the values to be displayed by the 7-segment displays (which are named HEX7-0) can be entered into the corresponding boxes and displayed by pressing the Set button. A keyboard connected to the PS/2 port can be used to type text that will be displayed on the LCD display.

Choosing the LED & LCD tab leads to the window in Figure 4. Here, you can turn the individual LEDs on by selecting them and pressing the Set button. Text can be written to the LCD display by typing it in the LCD box and pressing the corresponding Set button.

The ability to set arbitrary values into simple display devices is not needed in typical design activities. However, it gives the user a simple mechanism for verifying that these devices are functioning correctly in case a malfunction is suspected. Thus, it can be used for troubleshooting purposes.

SDRAM/SRAM Controller and Programmer

The Control Panel can be used to write/read data to/from the SDRAM and SRAM chips on the DE2 board. We will describe how the SDRAM may be accessed; the same approach is used to access the SRAM. Click on the SDRAM tab to reach the window in Figure 5.

A 16-bit word can be written into the SDRAM by entering the address of the desired location, specifying the data to be written, and pressing the Write button. Contents of the location can be read by pressing the Read button. Figure 5 depicts the result of writing the hexadecimal value 6CA into location 200, followed by reading the same location.

The Sequential Write function of the Control Panel is used to write the contents of a file into the SDRAM as follows:

1. Specify the starting address in the Address box.
2. Specify the number of bytes to be written in the Length box. If the entire file is to be loaded, then a checkmark may be placed in the File Length box instead of giving the number of bytes.
3. To initiate the writing of data, click on the Write a File to SDRAM button.
4. When the Control Panel responds with the standard Windows dialog box asking for the source file, specify the desired file in the usual manner.

The Control Panel also supports loading files with a .hex extension. Files with a .hex extension are ASCII text files that specify memory values using ASCII characters to represent hexadecimal values. For example, a file containing the line

                  0123456789ABCDEF

The Sequential Read function is used to read the contents of the SDRAM and place them into a file as follows:

1. Specify the starting address in the Address box.
2. Specify the number of bytes to be copied into the file in the Length box. If the entire contents of the SDRAM are to be copied (which involves all 8 Mbytes), then place a checkmark in the Entire SDRAM box.
3. Press Load SDRAM Content to a File button.
4. When the Control Panel responds with the standard Windows dialog box asking for the destination file, specify the desired file in the usual manner.

Flash Memory Programmer

The Control Panel can be used to write/read data to/from the Flash memory chip on the DE2 board.

It can be used to:

• Erase the entire Flash memory
• Write one byte to the memory
• Read one byte from the memory
• Write a binary file to the memory
• Load the contents of the Flash memory into a file

Note the following characteristics of the Flash memory:

• The Flash memory chip is organized as 4 M (or 1 M on some boards) x 8 bits.
• You must erase the entire Flash memory before you can write into it. (Be aware that the number of times a Flash memory can be erased is limited.)
• The time required to erase the entire Flash memory is about 20 seconds. Do not close the DE2 Control Panel in the middle of the operation.

To open the Flash memory control window, shown in Figure 6, select the FLASH tab in the Control Panel.

A byte of data can be written into a random location on the Flash chip as follows:

1. Click on the Chip Erase button. The button and the window frame title will prompt you to wait until the operation is finished, which takes about 20 seconds.
2. Enter the desired address into the Address box and the data byte into the wDATA box. Then, click on the Write button.

To read a byte of data from a random location, enter the address of the location and click on the Read button. The rDATA box will display the data read back from the address specified.

The Sequential Write function is used to load a file into the Flash chip as follows:

1. Specify the starting address and the length of data (in bytes) to be written into the Flash memory. You can click on the File Length checkbox to indicate that you want to load the entire file.
2. Click on the Write a File to Flash button to activate the writing process.
3. When the Control Panel responds with the standard Windows dialog box asking for the source file, specify the desired file in the usual manner.

The Sequential Read function is used to read the data stored in the Flash memory and write this data into a file as follows:

1. Specify the starting address and the length of data (in bytes) to be read from the Flash memory. You can click on the Entire Flash checkbox to indicate that you want to copy the entire contents of the Flash memory into a specified file.
2. Click on the Load Flash Content to a File button to activate the reading process.
3. When the Control Panel responds with the standard Windows dialog box asking for the destination file, specify the desired file in the usual manner.

Overall Structure of the DE2 Control Panel

The DE2 Control Panel facility communicates with a circuit that is instantiated in the Cyclone II FPGA. This circuit is specified in Verilog code, which makes it possible for a knowledgeable user to change the functionality of the Control Panel. The code is located inside the DE2_demonstrations directory on the DE2 System CD-ROM.

To run the Control Panel, the user must first set it up as explained earlier. Figure 7 depicts the structure of the Control Panel. Each input/output device is controlled by a controller instantiated in the FPGA chip. The communication with the PC is done via the USB Blaster link. A Command Controller circuit interprets the commands received from the PC and performs the appropriate actions. The SDRAM, SRAM, and Flash Memory controllers have three user-selectable asynchronous ports in addition to the Host port that provides a link with the Command Controller. The connection between the VGA DAC Controller and the FPGA memory allows displaying of the default image shown on the left side of the figure, which is stored in an M4K block in the Cyclone II chip. The connection between the Audio DAC Controller and a lookup table in the FPGA is used to produce a test audio signal of 1 kHz.

To let users implement and test their IP cores (written in Verilog) without requiring them to implement complex API/Host control software and memory (SRAM/SDRAM/Flash) controllers, we provide an integrated control environment consisting of a software controller in C++, a USB command controller, and a multi-port SRAM/SDRAM/Flash controller.

Users can connect circuits of their own design to one of the User Ports of the SRAM/SDRAM/Flash controller. Then, they can download binary data into the SRAM/SDRAM/Flash. Once the data is downloaded to the SDRAM/Flash, users can configure the memory controllers so that their circuits can read/write the SDRAM/Flash via the User Ports connected.

Maintained by John Loomis, last updated 8 November 2008