CygnusAlpha

After a few days wait the Xilinx Coolrunner II kit arrived in the post. The Coolrunner is a CPLD which contains Macrocells, which are a step up from the basic gate array of a PLD and the XC2C256 on this board has 256 macrocells configured via an interconnect matrix. Xilinx provide a programming suite, ISE, which is available for Windows and Linux. However they don't directly support Ubuntu.  Here is a brief howto to get the ISE running on  Xubuntu. The main hurdle with the ISE is that it requires a USB driver,  windrvr6, in order to use the Platform cable (DLC9G). However it is possible to configure Xubuntu to use libusb and to get the programming tool, iMPACT, to use this instead. 1.Install prerequisites.. apt-get fxload apt-get libusb 2. Configure the udev rules These load the correct hex file when the device is attached. jamesb@Jalapeno:~$ cat /etc/udev/rules.d/xusbdfwu.rules # version 0003 SYSFS{idVendor}=="03fd", SYSFS{idProduct}=="00...

Started working on the audio board prototype for the Camera A2D project.  It's based around a pair of NE5532 op amps. The input stage converts the balanced line input from the microphone, and the second stage acts as a preamp with level control to supply the correct levels to the nNovia. Should be on to some audio tests shortly so time to dig the signal generator and scope out.