Download bitfile to FPGA board in Linux

[Cherian]

[i had posted the following problem on the NI forum (http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=280&message.id=2885). I didn't get a solution to the problem, but an NI application engineer suggested that I post it on LAVA.]

We use NI PCI-7831R FPGA boards for real-time data acquisition in computers running Linux. (We wrote the driver ourselves.) However, when we want to download a new version of the FPGA bitfile (.lvbit) to the board, we need to move the board temporarily over to a Windows computer with the LabVIEW FPGA module installed. This, we would like to avoid.

Does anyone know of a way to download the bitfile while the FPGA board is still in the Linux computer? (It is not a dual boot computer.) Is there a program (or information to write a program) somewhere that will just download a bitfile that has already been created on a Windows computer?

Thanks for any help or hints.

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

QUOTE(Cherian @ Sep 12 2007, 01:58 PM)

[i had posted the following problem on the NI forum (http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=280&message.id=2885). I didn't get a solution to the problem, but an NI application engineer suggested that I post it on LAVA.]

We use NI PCI-7831R FPGA boards for real-time data acquisition in computers running Linux. (We wrote the driver ourselves.) However, when we want to download a new version of the FPGA bitfile (.lvbit) to the board, we need to move the board temporarily over to a Windows computer with the LabVIEW FPGA module installed. This, we would like to avoid.

Does anyone know of a way to download the bitfile while the FPGA board is still in the Linux computer? (It is not a dual boot computer.) Is there a program (or information to write a program) somewhere that will just download a bitfile that has already been created on a Windows computer?

Thanks for any help or hints.

Wow, you mean you wrote a driver for the FPGA board to communicate with it from within LabVIEW? In that case I would assume you know more about how this could be done, than anyone else here on LAVA possibly could know. And probably also almost anyone else except those that work for NI and developed the FPGA product and maybe a system integrator or two under NDA.

Rolf Kalbermatter

[Chris Davis]

I agree with Rolf, if you figured out how to write a driver for the FPGA card on linux, you've probably got more inside knowledge than most of us. But I did think of a suggestion, and re-reading your post makes me think it could be done. What about making your computer dual boot using a USB hard drive / thumb drive. I know you said that the machine wasn't dual boot right now, but I'm willing to bet that you can make it dual boot with any decently sized USB hard drive/thumb drive lying around the office. It might be an option to try, since it probably won't cost you much time and money. Writing a driver to download the bit file from linux will probably cost you quite a bit of time, if you haven't already started doing it.

Good Luck! Let us know how it fares.