One step XSVF file generation for CPLD

If you’re using one of our CPLD Development Boards you need to have a file in XSVF format to download to the board using the Bus Pirate loaded with the BPXSVFPLAYER firmware. We’ve posted a method to convert SVF files to XSVF format, but Xilinx has included a handy way to produce “One Step XSVF” files in their Webpack ISE development environment. As they describe it:

The One Step XSVF procedure creates an XSVF file without having you specify a file name and without having you specify the programming instructions to be executed on the selected device. The procedure creates an XSVF file containing a bitstream and commands to erase, program, and verify a device in your Boundary Scan chain. The file produced, named default.xsvf, is placed in your iMPACT project directory.

TO CREATE AN XSVF FILE IN ON STEP:
Double-click Boundary Scan in the iMPACT Flows panel.

In the Boundary Scan window, select the device for which you will create an SVF file. This means right-click on the window and go to the folder containing your current project’s files. Then double-click on the “.jed” file for your current project.) This will open a graphic showing your CPLD chip.

Left-click on the CPLD chip icon in the window to highlight the chip. Right click to display a drop down menu. Select the “One Step XSVF” option. The file will be created and the “Expressxsvf Succeeded” graphic will be displayed.

An XSVF file named “default.xsvf” is created in your project directory.

IMPORTANT NOTE: the file produced by this process is named default.xsvf and will be found in your iMPACT project directory. You will probably want to rename the file from “default” to something more descriptive. Then simply follow the BPXSVFPLAYER instructions to download to the CPLD board!

Adapted from Xilinx Webpack ISE 13.1 software help topics.

This entry was posted in compilers, CPLD, how-to and tagged webpack, Xilinx, XSVF.