MICROCHIP A54SX72A Silicon Explorer FlashPro User Guide
- June 15, 2024
- MICROCHIP
Table of Contents
MICROCHIP A54SX72A Silicon Explorer FlashPro User Guide
Introduction
Silicon Explorer FlashPro (FP) is designed as an alternative solution to the
Silicon Explorer II product. It is a command-line utility that uses FlashPro4,
FlashPro5, or FlashPro6 programmers to support the Action Probe feature, which
is a patented architectural feature built into all Microchip Antifuse devices
that allows access to any internal node from the selected external probe pins.
The Silicon Explorer FP software has been developed and tested on the Windows®
10 OS. Silicon Explorer FP supports the following Antifuse device families:
- RTAX-S/AX
- RTSX-SU
- A54SXA
- eX
Important: All other Antifuse device families including MX, ACT 1, ACT 2, and ACT 3 are not supported.
1. Getting Started
This section describes how to get started with the Silicon Explorer FlashPro tool.
1.1 Hardware Requirements
The FlashPro4, FlashPro5, and FlashPro6 programmers have the same pinout of the JTAG signals as shown in the following figure.
The following programmer JTAG I/Os must be connected to the target device:
- TCK
- TDO
- TMS
- TDI
- TRSTB
- GND
Pin 4 (PROG_MODE) and Pin 7 (VPUMP) are not connected. Pin 6 (VJTAG_VSPI) must be connected to the same voltage as the VCCI pins of the target device, not exceeding 3.3V. It is used as a reference voltage for the programmer to determine the VIH level of the JTAG I/Os of the programmer.
⚠ WARNING Connecting the VJTAG_VSPI pin to a voltage source greater than 3.6V
can damage the programmer.
FlashPro Programmers to Silicon Explorer II Adapter Specifications Silicon
Explorer II uses a 16 pin header as shown in the following figure. It is
possible to build an adapter to route the FlashPro programmer pinout to the
Silicon Explorer II pinout. Only the JTAG, ground, and VJTAG_VSPI pins of the
programmer must be connected as shown in the following figure.
The following table lists the FP programmer to silicon explorer II header map.
Table 1-1. FP Programmer to Silicon Explorer II Header Map
Important: Place a jumper between the VJTAG signals (pin 6 of the programmer and pin 5 of the Silicon Explorer II). If the board output is greater than 3.3V, then you must remove the jumper and connect the VJTAG of the programmer header to a 3.3V source.
1.2 Installing Silicon Explorer FP
Follow the steps to install Silicon Explorer FP:
- Copy SEFP.zip to a local directory on your local hard drive.
- Unzip SEFP.zip.
- Run FlashProDrivers.exe included in the release package to install FP4, FP5, and FP6 drivers.
- Open the Command Prompt and navigate to the directory where SEFP.exe resides from the preceding step.
2. Working with Silicon Explorer FP
This section describes how to work with the Silicon Explorer FlashPro tool.
2.1 Software Prerequisites
The Silicon Explorer FP software requires the following two arguments.
2.1.1 Probe File (.prb)
This file is generated by the designer software and must not be edited.
Example of a Valid Probe File Nets are listed after the | ENDHEADER line. The
first portion of each line is the net name and is the only part that needs to
be copied into the net configuration file.
2.1.2 Net configuration file (.txt)
This file is a text file and may have any name, with or without an extension. You must create this file, which must contain a list of the probe net assignments. The net configuration file has the following formats:
- A = net1_name or a = net1_name
- B = net2_name or b = net2_name
- C = net3_name or c = net3_name
- D = net4_name or d = net4_name
- The net names are manually copied from the .prb file and are case sensitive
- Only the nets to be probed need to be listed
Important:
- A = and B = probe pin assignments are valid for all the supported devices, including RTAX-S/AX device families.
- C = and D = probe pin assignments are only valid for RTAX-S/AX device families.
Example of a Valid Configuration File The net names are copied from the .prb
file.
Example 2-1.To route assigned internal nets to PRA1, PRA2, PRB1, and PRB2
respectively
a=array_pat_chk0/y_8
b=shftin1_63
c=Udelay_inst/Udelay2/temp_646
d=oe_lat_14
Example 2-2.To make only PRA2 valid
B=shfting1_63
2.2 Using Silicon Explorer FP
To use the Silicon Explorer FP tool, perform the following steps:
Working with Silicon Explorer FP
- Connect the programmer to be used for probing to your PC and the target device as described in the preceding section.
- Use an external device, such as an oscilloscope or logic analyzer, to observe the signals on the desired probe pins.
- In the command prompt, type the following command. SEFP.exe <probe_file_name.prb>
2.3 Software Flow
Follow the software flow to use the Silicon Explorer FP tool:
3. Examples
This section provides examples for working with different family of devices in the Silicon Explorer FlashPro tool.
3.1 A54SX72A Family
For the RTSX-SU/A54SXA and eX family of devices, there are only two probe pins, A and B, corresponding to the MPRA and MPRB pins of the target device, available for use. Net assignments for probe C and D are ignored if they are present in the configuration file. The example for the RTSX-SU/A54SXA family of devices is shown in the following codeblocks.
3.2 RTAX2000S Family
For the RTAX-S/AX family of devices, probes A, B, C, and D are available to be used. However, only two nets from each tile can be probed simultaneously. SEFP does this check internally and skips the nets that cannot be assigned. The example for the RTAX-S/AX family of devices is shown in the following codeblocks.
4. Revision History
The revision history describes the changes that were implemented in the document. The changes are listed by revision, starting with the most current publication.
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References
- Empowering Innovation | Microchip Technology
- Empowering Innovation | Microchip Technology
- Microchip Lightning Support
- Empowering Innovation | Microchip Technology
- Client Support Services | Microchip Technology
- Microchip Lightning Support