Pluto-P FPGA board

Pluto-P is an FPGA board that plugs into a PC (desktop or notebook) parallel port.

Pluto-P has the following characteristics:

• Based on Altera's EP1K10TC100 FPGA - see Altera literature for ACEX devices.
• Connects to your PC's parallel port (use a parallel extension cable if you don't want to plug Pluto-P directly to the back of your PC).
• Can communicate with the PC in SPP or EPP mode (source code provided).
• 28+3 I/O pins available (the '+3' are one clock and two dedicated inputs). The IOs are 3.3V, but 5V tolerant - great to connect to legacy systems.
• JTAG output port.
• Flashy compatible (100MSPS acquisition board).

FPGA configuration

Pluto-P comes with an application to configure the FPGA.

Select the bitfile you want, and click the 'Configure!' button.
The FPGA is configured through the parallel port. The process takes 1 to 2 seconds.

Pluto-P in FPGA mode

To use Pluto-P as a regular FPGA board:

1. Plug Pluto-P in the back of your notebook (or desktop) PC.
2. Power it using a common DC adapter.

Pluto-P's FPGA is configured through the parallel port. After configuration, Pluto-P can still communicate with the PC through the parallel port. See for example the EPP bi-directional mode project, and Flashy (below).

Pluto-P has a built-in voltage regulator, so that you can use a cheap DC adapter (5V to 12V) as power.

Pluto-P in 'FPGA JTAG cable' mode

Pluto-P can be used as an 'FPGA JTAG cable' (it emulates such cable, so that it can configure an FPGA on another board for example).
Here's how it works:

1. Plug Pluto-P in the back of your notebook (or desktop) PC.
2. Connect its JTAG port into another FPGA board (Pluto-P borrows power from its host JTAG board. No need for a DC adapter, but needs to be 3.3V JTAG port).
3. Configure the FPGA with one of the provided 'FPGA JTAG' bitfile. Now Pluto-P emulates an Altera ByteBlaster II or a Xilinx Parallel III JTAG cable. Just use Xilinx ISE Impact, or Altera Quartus-II programmer, as you would with any FPGA cable.

Flashy

Pluto-P is compatible with the Flashy boards.

The combination creates a single channel 100MSPS acquisition board/digital oscilloscope.

Pluto-P/Flashy reference design uses EPP. So if you order Pluto-P and Flashy, make sure that your PC supports EPP.

What files are provided with Pluto-P?

Board files:

• Getting started with your board (PDF)
• FPGAconf configuration software (Windows EXE)

FPGA:

• SPP & EPP examples (HDL + C source code)
• Flashy reference design (FPGA RBF file + GUI)
• JTAG Xilinx & Altera emulation files (FPGA RBF file)

You need Altera Quartus software to compile your own projects, see fpga4fun's Quartus quick-start guide.

To purchase a board

Go to the Shop - FPGA development board (parallel) page.