Xilinx Spartan 3E Starter kit with Altium !!

[Ahmad_k]

Did anyone tried to use this starter board with ALTIUM Designer ?

http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?NavPath=2,400,423&Prod=S3EBOARD

My Dev board works good in ISE but it cannot be detected in ALTIUM i'm using the on board USB jtag. Should i buy an external JTAG interface for ALTIUM supporting or the on board usb interface will work ?

[Prommer]

Hi, Ahmad_k !

With Altium you can use only the Soft-JTAG via the Parallel Port from Altium-Designer (Nexus). When you with a better performance you can use Nanoboard 3000 with
Spartan3AN (1400). The cost of this Board is € 300,00. Look Altium-Wiki > Nanobard 3000. Altium has also a Developer.... DT2 it is for debugging over USB-JTAG but only
schematic and pcb avaiable, no Firmware for the ARM.

Info !! Standard USB to Parallelport Converter does not work for JTAG !! 

kind regards, Prommer

[Ahmad_k]

I have another PC that have a parallel port, and there is a lot of jtag schematic over LPT on the Internet. So can this work with this ALTIUM ?

[Prommer]

Hi, Ahmad_k !

You can use the Altium Designer directly over the Parallel Port with Nexus (Soft-JTAG) from Altium without Hardware. You can use as Reference
the Altium LifeDesign Boards (Legacy). I have an old Cyclone LifeDesign Board with an extra cable (Parallelport to 20-pin Connector). It works fine with
Altium. I'm use at this time an Altera Cyclon III Starterboard and the Soft-JTAG (Nexus) is Connected via HSMSC Connector directwired JTAG-Pins
from the device. The Function with Altium Designer via Parallel-Port is usefull but not the fastet.
I have also used the same board as you (Spartan3E). You must use the direct J-TAG connection to the Device ! Some Informations as pdf's are
avaiable inside the Altium Designer Help-Directory ! The Connections from 3rd-Party Board's to the Soft-JTAG (Nexus) are described. The Debug Functions in the Altium Designer avaiable only with the NEXUS Soft-JTAG Connection !!

kind regard's

Prommer