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Bitstream loading through BL616 on Nano 20K

Open nand2mario opened this issue 2 years ago • 2 comments

In theory, BL616 can read bitstream from SD card or USB and program the FPGA, allowing switching between cores.

Some discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/GowinFPGA/comments/11u5vlf/usb_cdcserial_repl_for_pikapython/

Issues:

  • The BL616 doesn't have enough memory to hold the whole fs image (8MB).
  • BL616 is wired as a USB device (CC pins tied to ground). So it cannot act as a USB host even if the sdk allows it.

nand2mario avatar May 20 '23 07:05 nand2mario

The BL616 can act as a USB host. See https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bP5gK3nmv-o

harbaum avatar Jan 09 '24 15:01 harbaum

The fs image is only ~700k. The .fs files are ASCII and thus way bigger. But 700k is still too much for the BL616. I am considering using an external SPIU or I²C RAM.

harbaum avatar Jan 09 '24 15:01 harbaum