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System ACE CompactFlash Solution
DS080 (v1.4) January 3, 2002
Advance Product Specification
1-800-255-7778 R A basic understanding of the typical System ACE file and directory structure (shown in
Figure 9
) is useful when
programming an FPGA target system with a CompactFlash device in the System ACE solution.
The
.ACE
file is at the lowest level of the directory structure.
The Xilinx System ACE software converts a revision of a
design (bitstream) into an
.ACE
file. An
.ACE
file represents
a single set of bitstreams for a particular chain of devices.
The next level up in the file structure is a collection. The col-
lection consists of eight
.ACE
files grouped together. All of
the
.ACE
files in a collection (directory) can be addressed
when in the System ACE environment. There can be sev-
eral collections stored on a CompactFlash device, but only
one collection can be active at any given time.
The
xilinx.sys
file determines the collection from which
designs can be read.
The hierarchical design of the System ACE directory struc-
ture provides the ability to maintain multiple revisions or col-
lections of different designs in a single ACE Flash device.
Each collection directory can contain one or more designs
that reside in different subdirectories. Each design subdi-
rectory should contain a single
.ACE
file that represents a
single set of bitstreams for a particular chain of devices. In
addition to FPGA configuration information, the collection
and design subdirectories can contain other information
pertaining to the system design such as system software,
documentation, etc.
The
xilinx.sys
file in the root directory of the ACE Flash
device is used to control which of the designs within the
active collection is to be used to configure the chain of tar-
get devices. Only one collection, containing up to eight
designs, can be active at one time.
The ACE Controller parses the
xilinx.sys
file to determine
the active collection designs and uses the three configura-
tion address pins or MPU register bits (CFGADDR) to select
the desired design. If no
xilinx.sys
file exists in the root
directory of the ACE Flash device, a single
.ACE
file in the
root directory is used by System ACE as the active design.
Following are rules for the System ACE directory structure:
System ACE configuration files must reside on the first
partition of the CompactFlash device.
The System ACE partition must be formatted as FAT12
or FAT16.
A
xilinx.sys
or single
.ACE
file must be in the root
(project) directory. An
.ACE
file is used only if the
xilinx.sys
file cannot be found in this directory.
Only one
.ACE
file should exist in the ROOT and/or
design directories. This directory structure allows the
Configuration controller to be able to use the
.ACE
file
to program the FPGA target system correctly.
Figure 9:
System ACE Directory Structure
DS080_11_032101
dir = Rev_3;
cfgaddr0 = asia;
cfgaddr1 = europe;
cfgaddr3 = samerica;
cfgaddr4 = diag_1;
cfgaddr5 = diag_1;
cfgaddr6 = diag_2;
cfgaddr7 = diag_2;
xilinx.sys
Project Name - (root dir) "/"
*.ace
*.ace
*.ace
asia
(sub-dir)
europe
(sub-dir)
diag_2
(sub-dir)
Rev_3 (sub-dir)
Rev_2 (sub-dir)
Rev_1 (sub-dir)
CompactFlash
Available Collections
Collection Rev_3 Available Designs
for Target FPGA Chain
ACE System File
Containing Active Collection
(Up to 8 Designs)