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}=="0008", MODE="666"
BUS=="usb", ACTION=="add", SYSFS{idVendor}=="03fd", SYSFS{idProduct}=="0007", RUN+="/sbin/fxload -v -t fx2 -I /usr/share/xusbdfwu.hex -D $tempnode"
BUS=="usb", ACTION=="add", SYSFS{idVendor}=="03fd", SYSFS{idProduct}=="0009", RUN+="/sbin/fxload -v -t fx2 -I /usr/share/xusb_xup.hex -D $tempnode"
BUS=="usb", ACTION=="add", SYSFS{idVendor}=="03fd", SYSFS{idProduct}=="000d", RUN+="/sbin/fxload -v -t fx2 -I /usr/share/xusb_emb.hex -D $tempnode"
BUS=="usb", ACTION=="add", SYSFS{idVendor}=="03fd", SYSFS{idProduct}=="000f", RUN+="/sbin/fxload -v -t fx2 -I /usr/share/xusb_xlp.hex -D $tempnode"
BUS=="usb", ACTION=="add", SYSFS{idVendor}=="03fd", SYSFS{idProduct}=="0013", RUN+="/sbin/fxload -v -t fx2 -I /usr/share/xusb_xp2.hex -D $tempnode"
BUS=="usb", ACTION=="add", SYSFS{idVendor}=="03fd", SYSFS{idProduct}=="0015", RUN+="/sbin/fxload -v -t fx2 -I /usr/share/xusb_xse.hex -D $tempnode"
These can be found in the ${XILINX}/ISE/bin/lin directory.
jamesb@Jalapeno:~$ ls -al /usr/share/*.hex
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 48 2010-12-05 21:32 /usr/share/xusbdfwu.hex -> /opt/Xilinx/12.3/ISE_DS/ISE/bin/lin/xusbdfwu.hex
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 48 2010-12-05 21:32 /usr/share/xusb_emb.hex -> /opt/Xilinx/12.3/ISE_DS/ISE/bin/lin/xusb_emb.hex
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 48 2010-12-05 21:32 /usr/share/xusb_xlp.hex -> /opt/Xilinx/12.3/ISE_DS/ISE/bin/lin/xusb_xlp.hex
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 48 2010-12-05 21:32 /usr/share/xusb_xp2.hex -> /opt/Xilinx/12.3/ISE_DS/ISE/bin/lin/xusb_xp2.hex
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 48 2010-12-05 21:32 /usr/share/xusb_xpr.hex -> /opt/Xilinx/12.3/ISE_DS/ISE/bin/lin/xusb_xpr.hex
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 48 2010-12-05 21:32 /usr/share/xusb_xse.hex -> /opt/Xilinx/12.3/ISE_DS/ISE/bin/lin/xusb_xse.hex
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 48 2010-12-05 21:32 /usr/share/xusb_xup.hex -> /opt/Xilinx/12.3/ISE_DS/ISE/bin/lin/xusb_xup.hex
You can use ln -s to create the symlinks..
4. Setup some scripts to start up ISE and IMPACT
jamesb@Jalapeno:~/bin$ cat ise#!/bin/bash
source /opt/Xilinx/12.3/ISE_DS/settings32.sh
export XIL_IMPACT_USE_LIBUSB=1
XIL_IMPACT_USE_LIBUSB=1 /opt/Xilinx/12.3/ISE_DS/ISE/bin/lin/ise &
#!/bin/bash
source /opt/Xilinx/12.3/ISE_DS/settings32.sh
export XIL_IMPACT_USE_LIBUSB=1
XIL_IMPACT_USE_LIBUSB=1 /opt/Xilinx/12.3/ISE_DS/ISE/bin/lin/impact &
So, assuming that worked, plug in the platform cable and you should get an orange light.. you're good to go!
I suppose I'd better go off and write some code now.. byee..
My environment :-
Xubuntu 10.10
Linux Jalapeno 2.6.35-23-generic #41-Ubuntu SMP Wed Nov 24 10:18:49 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux
Xilinx_ISE_DS_Lin_12.3_M.70d.1.0 in /opt/Xilinx/12.3/ISE_DS/
Platform Cable DLC9G
Linky :-
http://www.xilinx.com/support/download/index.htm
http://www.xilinx.com/support/documentation/coolrunner-ii.htm
YMMV etc.
