FPGA Central

Hi all,

Does anyone know if Altera Quartus II (3.0+) will let me use a
parallel port to USB adapter? I just got a new machine, in part so I
could upgrade to 3.0 from 2.2 (and in part so everything would go
faster), but it doesn't have a parallel port! I basically have three
options: waste the only PCI slot in the machine for a parallel port
card, use a USB adapter, or special-order a manufacturer-special
parallel port interface for the machine with unknown lead time.

The question is basically: does Quartus II rely on it being a serial
port interface with the traditional I/O ports, or does it handle
anything that can drive a printer?

Shelling out $300 for the yet-not-in-existence USB-Blaster cable is
not realistic, nor is $500 for MasterBlaster which doesn't even handle
the active serial configuration devices.

-hpa

--
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If you send me mail in HTML format I will assume it's spam.
"Unix gives you enough rope to shoot yourself in the foot."
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I believe that it treats the port as a bit bashed parallel port and as such
requires it to look exactly like a parallel port.
so unless the USB <> parallel port has the same registers, it won't work.
But this is just a belief.

I would suggest you waste a PCI port.. but make sure that the parallel port
card you buy can be returned if it doesn't work. Not all parallel ports are
created equal.

Simon

"H. Peter Anvin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:blakq0$nm$[email protected]..
> Hi all,
>
> Does anyone know if Altera Quartus II (3.0+) will let me use a
> parallel port to USB adapter? I just got a new machine, in part so I
> could upgrade to 3.0 from 2.2 (and in part so everything would go
> faster), but it doesn't have a parallel port! I basically have three
> options: waste the only PCI slot in the machine for a parallel port
> card, use a USB adapter, or special-order a manufacturer-special
> parallel port interface for the machine with unknown lead time.
>
> The question is basically: does Quartus II rely on it being a serial
> port interface with the traditional I/O ports, or does it handle
> anything that can drive a printer?
>
> Shelling out $300 for the yet-not-in-existence USB-Blaster cable is
> not realistic, nor is $500 for MasterBlaster which doesn't even handle
> the active serial configuration devices.
>
> -hpa
>
> --
> <[email protected]> at work, <[email protected]> in private!
> If you send me mail in HTML format I will assume it's spam.
> "Unix gives you enough rope to shoot yourself in the foot."
> Architectures needed: ia64 m68k mips64 ppc ppc64 s390 s390x sh v850 x86-64

Peter,

I asked the experts at Altera, and they verified that using a parallel
port to USB adapter will not work.

- Subroto Datta
Altera Corp.

"H. Peter Anvin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:blakq0$nm$[email protected]..
> Hi all,
>
> Does anyone know if Altera Quartus II (3.0+) will let me use a
> parallel port to USB adapter? I just got a new machine, in part so I
> could upgrade to 3.0 from 2.2 (and in part so everything would go
> faster), but it doesn't have a parallel port! I basically have three
> options: waste the only PCI slot in the machine for a parallel port
> card, use a USB adapter, or special-order a manufacturer-special
> parallel port interface for the machine with unknown lead time.
>
> The question is basically: does Quartus II rely on it being a serial
> port interface with the traditional I/O ports, or does it handle
> anything that can drive a printer?
>
> Shelling out $300 for the yet-not-in-existence USB-Blaster cable is
> not realistic, nor is $500 for MasterBlaster which doesn't even handle
> the active serial configuration devices.
>
> -hpa
>
> --
> <[email protected]> at work, <[email protected]> in private!
> If you send me mail in HTML format I will assume it's spam.
> "Unix gives you enough rope to shoot yourself in the foot."
> Architectures needed: ia64 m68k mips64 ppc ppc64 s390 s390x sh v850 x86-64

Followup to: <rvBeb.7724$[email protected]>
By author: "Subroto Datta" <[email protected]>
In newsgroup: comp.arch.fpga
>
> Peter,
>
> I asked the experts at Altera, and they verified that using a parallel
> port to USB adapter will not work.
>

Thanks. I ended up finding a vendor which carried the proprietary
parallel port interface (really just a special cable plugging into a
nonstandard header on the motherboard -- had they used a standard
header the problem would have been solved long ago) for this machine
and could deliver it with a reasonable lead time; FedEx is supposed to
deliver it today.

A USB solution would have been nicer because of portability, of course.

-hpa
--
<[email protected]> at work, <[email protected]> in private!
If you send me mail in HTML format I will assume it's spam.
"Unix gives you enough rope to shoot yourself in the foot."
Architectures needed: ia64 m68k mips64 ppc ppc64 s390 s390x sh v850 x86-64