Answers Database

7336 part programmed by BP Micro programmer works, but HW-130 programmedpart does not--LOWPWR problem


Record #2079

Product Family:  Hardware

Product Line:  7300

Problem Title:
7336 part programmed by BP Micro programmer works, but HW-130
programmedpart does not--LOWPWR problem



Problem Description:
Keywords:  low power lowpwr 7336  BP program hw-130

Urgency: standard

General Description:
Customers may find that a 7336 PC44 fails functional testing
on their board when programmed on an HW-130 programmer, but
not when programmed on a BP Microsystems programmer.  They may
also find that reading in the programming data from a
BP-programmed part on an HW-130 and using this to program the
part on an HW-130 also results in a functional part.

A comparison of the images of the parts programmed by the BP
and HW-130 programmers will show a difference in the address
range 8E0 to 8EB, specifically 8E0 to 8E4, and 8E8 to 8EB.  In
the BP-programmed image, these addresses are all set to FFH,
which is identical to an unprogrammed state, whereas the
HW-130 image may show an image of F0's and FF's, the exact
pattern depending on the version of the device.



Solution 1:


Read the contents of the two devices programmed by the two
different programmers and save each to a file. Next do a
comparison of the two files.  See if the images of the parts
programmed by the BP and HW-130 programmers shows a difference
in the address range 8E0 to 8EB, specifically addresses 8E0 to
8E4, and 8E8 to 8EB.

In one case, these addresses were all set to FFH in
the BP-programmed device, whereas the HW-130 image shows a
pattern of F0's and FF's. (Note that FFH is identical to an
unprogrammed state.)

The 9 address locations in the .PRG file starting at 8E0
actually control the LOWPWR operating mode in 7336 devices.
LOWPWR mode makes the part consume less power, but also makes
the part run slower.

Customers may find that differences in functionality are
related to a difference in the speed of the two parts when
they are run in different power consumption modes.

Setting the addresses to a specific pattern of F0's and FF 's
sets the part to HIGH power mode and makes it run faster.
Certain revisions of the HW-130 algorithms support setting
the operating mode to High Power by default; on the other
hand, the BP programmer does not support high power mode at
all.

Three different revisions of the 7336 have been produced, and
the 7336 algorithm currently shipping with v4.0.0 of the
HW-130 software can identify each revision and use the
appropriate programming algorithm to configure the part.

The very first versions of the 7336 parts did not support
high power mode.  The algorithm that supported these first
parts ignored the 9 power mode addresses and did not include
them in the checksum.

The second released version of the 7336 *did* support
high power mode.  The updated algorithm that was shipped
with the new part recognized both the old and new parts, and
would enable HIGH POWER operation mode for the die
revision 2 parts, but continued to ignore the 9 power mode
address location values when calculating the checksum.

The third revision of the 7336 was shipped with a third
algorithm which did not enable high power mode in revision
3 devices.  This was the algorithm packaged with HW130 v4.0.0.

If the design appears to work only in LOWPWR mode, the
workaround would be to manually edit the .PRG file and change
the F0's at the following addresses to FF's to set the
device to LOWPWR mode:

8E0   8E8
8E1   8E9
8E2   8EA
8E3   8EB
8E4

If the original design is available, you can also specify the
LOWPWR=ALL property in the input schematic or HDL description,
recompile the design, and use the new .PRG file to program
the device.



End of Record #2079