
    GNU/Linux FPGAConf Port
    =======================

    This program is the port to GNU/Linux of the FPGAConf used to configure the
FPGA based "Pluto" board.
    
    "Pluto" is a tiny FPGA board found at http://www.fpga4fun.com created by 
Jean P. Nicolle (jean@fpga4fun.com). Despite its size (it uses Altera's 
EP1K10TC100 FPGA), there are a lot of projects that could be made for this 
board and some of these can be found in the same page. The others needs your of
creativity. :-)

    Obviously this program is based on FPGAConf which is copyright (c) Jean P.
Nicolle. The rest is copyright (c) Emma's Software and distributed under the 
GNU General Program License (GPL). See COPYING file for more details.

    Compiling
    ---------
    
    To build this program the only commands you need are these: 

    ]# tar -xvzf fpgaconf-0.1.0.tar.gz
    ]# cd fpgaconf-0.1.0.tar.gz
    ]# make

    This program only requires the termios library which is found in nearly 
every GNU/Linux distribution, so you shouldn't have any problem compiling it.

    After compiling it a executable file called fpgaconfig is found under the 
src directory.

    Usage
    -----

    The only two things you need to know in order to use this program are the 
serial port Pluto is attached to and the file you want to download to the board.

    As in the original FPGAConfig program the file to download must be a RBF
binary file created, for example, using Altera's Quartus Design Software. In 
the time of this writing there isn't a Quarus free version for GNU/Linux, so 
the only way to make a RBF file is using a Windows box. I know this isn't as 
neat as we wish, but the way I handle this situation is with a shared directory
and a ssh connection with the GNU/Linux box :-)

    Anyways to download the RBF file to the board just execute:

    ]# fpgaconf -f filename.rbf [ -d /dev/ttySx ]

    The -f parameter, that is mandatory, indicates the file to download to the
board. The optional parameter -d serves to say what serial port to use in the
download process. If it's not specified it defaults to /dev/ttyS0 (COM1 in 
D.O.S. world), but you can use any other like /dev/ttyS1 (COM2), /dev/ttyS2
(COM 3), etc...
    

    There are a couple more of parameters:

	-V  Prints out the program's version at the screen (not very useful).  
	-h  Shows a simple help screen with an explanation of all command line 
	    parameters.

    Test
    ----

    I have included in this package the same file found in the original 
FPGA config program, ledblink.rbf, in the test directory.
    Please note that this file is also copyright (c) Jean P. Nicolle and you
can find the program sources at http://www.fpga4fun.com/QuartusQuickStart.html.
    To download this file to the board execute:

    ]# ./fpgaconf -f test/ledblink.rbf 

    Or add the appropriate -d /dev/ttySx parameter if needed.


    Bugs
    ----
    
    I hope this application will be useful of some of you, but there isn't program without bugs, so if you find any bugs or have any suggestion, please  let me know. Thanks.

    Jordi Fita
    summaky@vodafone.es
    April 2004
