New Users Forum

[prashant.hunagund]

Hi,

We are customizing the ML605 board i.e instead of SO-DIMM, we want to use DDR3 IC( MT41J64M16LA-15E:B) interfaced to Virtex-6 LX240T FPGA.So i have used MIG tool and generated UCF file.

My question is regarding software, which is required for new DDR3 IC( MT41J64M16LA-15E:B) interface, Can we use same DDR3 software code, which is written for SO-DIMM?pls let me know

Thansk and Regards,

Prashant  

[eilert]

Hi Prashant,

The SO-DIMMs for the ML605 already use DDR3 technology and support modules up to 2GB, so what's the improvement?

(See ug534.pdf Page 17)

Do you want to build your own SO-DIMM module from the mentioned chip?

The bare chip hardly fits into the SO-DIMM Socket.

What software are you talking about?

You do not need software to interface to some RAM, but hardware.

Mostly sth. like some IP-Core as generated by the MIG tool.

Or can you even use some hardmacro DDR3 Controller of the V6 device, if there are any?

Please state your request more clearly and in more detail. It does not make much sense, the way it is.

Have a nice synthesis

  Eilert

[prashant.hunagund]

Thanks  Eilert for your support,

Because of the size constraint,we can't use SO-DIMM in our board and we are not making SO-DIMM module using DDR3 component.Instead we are just using DDR3 IC component in our board, which interfaced to Virtex-6 FPGA's DDR3 IP core.

I have mapped the pinouts of DDR3 component to virtex-6 FPGA pinouts(generated using MIG tool).

Software means DDR3 drivers, used for SO-DIMM, Can same driver is used for DDR3 component ? 

[eilert]

Hi Prashant,

I see. I did not understand that you mean "Routing a new PCB" with "customizing".

No it's clear and makes sense.

If you made the connections between DDR3 chips and FPGA correctly and are using a V6 DDR3 IP core configured by the MIG tool everything should be fine.

From a software point of view, if you are talking about the software/firmware running on the embedded Microprocessor in the FPGA, nothing needs to be changed, as long as you didn't change the ports to the inner circuits of the FPGA of the DDR3 interface .

Of course, your memory map should be set correctly according to your memory size.

If you have more questions regarding this you should post them on the xilinx forums focused on embeded processor technology. (Or just search these forums, maybe someone else had a similar problem)

Have a nice synthesis

  Eilert

[prashant.hunagund]

Thanks  Eilert,

I think, there is some confusion because of word"Customizing".

Actually we are developing a board for new project and design of the board is similar to ML605 board with viretx-6 VLX240T fpga, DDR3 memory, ethernet etc.So, we took,schematic of ML605 board as a reference to develop our board and also developed our software(used microblaze controller) which were tested on ML605 board.

The issue with our new board was DDR3 memory.ML605 uses SO-DIMM memory(64-bit data & 16-bit address) and due to size constraint we could not fit it in our board so we used DDR3 IC component(16-bit data & 13-bit address).

 The size, address and data lines for SO-DIMM and  DDR3 IC are different and we have tested our software on SO-DIMM.So, my question was, Can i use the same software developed(or drivers) for SO-DIMM on new board(with DDR3 IC component)?

Please let me know.

Thanks and Regards,

Prashant

[joelby]

As long as you use the MIG with your chosen DDR3 chip, the memory will appear to be identical to Microblaze, except that the memory size might be different. You can think of MIG as a memory 'driver' that provides a consistent interface to a number of different RAM chips.