NB2DSK01 - NanoTalk Controller
The NB2DSK01 uses a Xilinx Spartan-3 device (XC3S1500-4FG676C) as the controller for the board. This device is commonly referred to as the NanoTalk Controller. It is this device into which the 'smarts' of the system – the NanoBoard firmware – gets loaded upon power-up.
Figure 1. NanoTalk Controller, implemented using a Xilinx Spartan-3
device.
The XC3S1500-4FG676C is a 456-pin device (333 User I/O) with 576K of embedded RAM and 29K logic cells.
The NanoTalk Controller manages JTAG communications with:
- Parallel PC and USB PC interfaces
- System JTAG header
- FPGA daughter board
- Peripheral boards
- Master/Slave daisy-chain
- User Board headers.
The NanoTalk Controller also manages/communicates with the following areas of the board:
- Host status LEDs
- 1-Wire memory devices (used for identification) on motherboard, daughter board, peripheral boards and Desktop Stereo Speaker Assembly NB2DSK-SPK01
- TFT LCD panel.
and the following SPI-based resources:
- Touch Screen Digitizer
- SPI Master clock
- SPI Flash memory
- Real-Time Clock (RTC)
- SPI resources on peripheral boards
- SPI-compatible LED drivers on the attached Desktop Stereo Speaker Assembly NB2DSK-SPK01.
In addition to JTAG chain management and communications with board resources locally, the NanoTalk Controller multiplexes the various device chains (NanoBoard, Hard JTAG and Soft JTAG) to present a single JTAG link to the PC on which the Altium Designersoftware is installed. This single chain is then demultiplexed by the software (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Accessing information for the multiplexed JTAG chains over a single JTAG link.
The JTAG link between the NB2DSK01 and the PC can be implemented using either the parallel or USB 2.0 ports. For more information, see NB2DSK01 - NanoBoard-PC Interface (Parallel Port) and NB2DSK01 - NanoBoard-PC Interface (USB Port), respectively.
Location on Board
The Xilinx Spartan-3 device (designated U5) is located on the component side of the board, within the real estate that falls beneath the TFT LCD panel.
Schematic Reference
The NanoTalk Controller can be found on Sheet 13 (Host_FPGA.SchDoc, entitled Host Controller - Spartan3-1500) of the motherboard schematics.
Further Device Information
More information on the XC3S1500-4FG676C can be found through the Browse Physical Devices dialog. Access this dialog from the Devices view (View » Devices Views) by choosing the Browse Physical Devices entry in the main Tools menu.
Alternatively, refer to the datasheet (dso99.pdf) available at www.xilinx.com.