Target Board Requirements

The following are general target board requirements for all target boards regardless of the type of cable being used. Specific cables and configuration modes may have additional target board requirements.

High Performance Ribbon Cable

The Parallel Cable IV uses a high performance ribbon cable which incorporates multiple signal-ground pairs. The cable has a single 14- pin connector which requires a corresponding 14-pin board header with 0.5mm square posts on 2mm centers.

When you lay out the printed circuit board for use with iMPACT in-system programming and testing, a few adjustments make the process of connecting and downloading easier. Place pins or header on the board so that flying leads or the high performance ribbon cable can reach them. The length of our flying leads is either six inches (Parallel Cable) or twelve inches (MultiLINX Cable). The ribbon cable is recommended for all new designs in order to achieve the highest configuration data throughput. When using the ribbon cable, you must select Ribbon Cable in the Cable Leads section of the Preferences dialog box.

Note The Ribbon Cable is available for the Parallel IV and MultiPRO only. The high performance ribbon cable is 6” long.

Flying Lead Connectors

Some Xilinx cables use flying lead connectors that have individual female connectors on one end that fit onto standard 0.025ð square male pins on your target board. Each lead is labeled to identify the proper pin connection.

Flying Leads

Provide pins on your printed circuit board for your desired configuration mode. For example, Boundary-Scan configuration would require Vcc, GND, TCK, TDO, TDI and TMS header pins.

These pins must be standard 0.025” square male pins that have dedicated traces to the target device control pins. You connect to these pins with the flying lead connector.

While pins may be a couple of inches apart, do not have any two JTAG connector pins more than six inches apart.

Note When using flying leads, you must select Flying Leads in the Cable Leads section of the Preferences dialog box to insure safe operation of the cable. You also need to keep header pins on your board a minimum of 0.10” apart.

Mode Pin Connections for FPGAs Only

When using download cables to configure a device or chain of devices, you must set the appropriate device configuration mode. You must set M0, M1, and M2 to the value specified in the device’s databook for the desired mode. Refer to the Development System Guide or The Programmable Logic Data Book for information on setting the mode pins.