XC1700E and XC1700L Series Configuration PROMs
4 www.xilinx.com DS027 (v3.1) July 5, 2000
1-800-255-7778 Product Specification
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Controlling PROMs
Connecting the FPGA device with the PROM. 
• The DATA output(s) of th e of the PROM(s) drives the 
D
IN
 input of the lead FPGA device.
• The Master FPGA CCLK output drives the CLK input(s) 
of the PROM(s).
• The CEO
 output of a PROM drives the CE in put of the
next PROM in a daisy chain (if any).
• The RESET
/OE input of all PROMs is best driven by
the INIT
 output of the lead FPGA device. This 
connection assur es that th e PROM address counter is 
reset before the start of any (re)configuration, even 
when a reconfiguration is initiated by a V
CC
 glitch.
Other methods—such as d riv in g RESE T
/OE from LDC 
or system reset—assume the PROM internal 
power-on-reset is always in step with the FPGA’s 
internal power-on-reset. This may not be a safe 
assumption.
• The PROM CE
 input can be driven from either the LDC 
or DONE pins. Using LDC avoids potential contention 
on the D
IN
 pin.
• The CE
 input of the lead (or o nly) PROM is driven by 
the DONE output of the lead FPGA device, provided 
that DONE is not permanently grounded. Otherwise, 
LDC
 can be used to drive CE, but must then be
unconditionally High during user operation. CE
 can 
also be perm anently t ied Low, but this keeps the DATA 
output active and causes an unnecessary supply 
current of 10 mA maximum.
FPGA Master Serial Mode Summary
The I/O and logic functions of the Con figurable Logi c Block 
(CLB) and their associated interconnections are established 
by a configuration program. The program is loa ded either 
automatically upon power up, or on command, depend ing 
on the state of the three FPG A mo de p ins. In M aster Se rial 
mode, the FPGA automatic ally lo ads th e con figuration program from an external memory. The Xilinx PROMs have 
been designed for compatibility with the Master Serial 
mode. 
Upon power-up or reconfiguration, an FPGA enters the 
Master Serial mode whenever all three of the FPGA 
mode-select pins are Low (M0=0, M1=0, M2=0). Data is 
read from the PROM sequentially on a single data line. Synchronization is provided by the rising edge of the temporary 
signal CCLK, which is generated during configuration.
Master Serial Mod e provides a simple configuration interface. Only a serial data line and two control lines are 
required to configure an FPGA. Data from the PROM is
read sequentially, accessed via the internal address and bit 
counters which are inc remented on every valid ris ing edge 
of CCLK. 
If the user-programmable, dual-function D
IN
 pin on the 
FPGA is used only for configuration, it must still be held at a 
defined level during normal operation. The Xilinx FPGA 
families take care of this automatically with an on-chip 
default pull-up resistor. 
Programming the FPGA With Counters 
Unchanged Upon Completion
When multiple FPGA-con figurations for a single FPGA are 
stored in a PROM, the OE
 pin should be tied Low. Upon 
power-up, the internal address counte rs are re set and c onfiguration begins wit h the first program stored in memor y. 
Since the OE
 pin is held Low, the address coun ter s ar e le ft 
unchanged after configuration is complete. Therefore, to 
reprogram the FPGA with another program, the DONE line 
is pulled Low and config uration begins at the last value of 
the address counters.
This method fails if a user applies RESET
 during the FPGA 
configuration process. T he FPGA abor ts the configuration 
and then restar ts a new configuration, as inten ded, but the 
PROM does not reset its address counter, since it never 
saw a High level on its OE
 input. The new configuration, 
therefore, reads the remaining data in the PROM and interprets it as preamble, length count etc. Si nce the FPGA is 
the master, it issues the necessary number of CCLK pulses, 
up to 16 million (2
24
) and DONE goes High. However, the 
FPGA configuration will be completely wrong, with potential 
contentions inside the FPGA and on its output pins. This 
method must, therefore, never be used when there is any 
chance of external reset during configuration.
Cascading Configuration PROMs
For multiple FPGAs configured as a daisy-chain, or for 
future FPGAs requiring larger configuration memories, cascaded PROMs provide additional memo r y. After the last bit 
from the first PROM is read, the next clock signal to the 
PROM asser ts its CEO
 output Low and disables its DATA 
line. The second PROM recognizes the Low level on its CE 
input and enables its DATA output. See Figure 2.
After configuration is complete, the a ddress coun ters of all 
cascaded PROMs are reset if the FPGA RESET
 pin goes 
Low, assuming the PROM reset polarity option has been 
inverted. 
To re program the FPGA with another program, the DONE 
line goes Low and configuration begi ns where the add ress 
counters had stopped. In this case, avoid contention 
between DATA and the configured I/O use of D
IN
.