In-system programming software meets the standard

Lattice Semiconductor has the industry's first full-featured programming software supporting the newly approved IEEE 1532 standard for in-system configurable (ISC) device programming.

Lattice Semiconductor has made available the industry's first full-featured programming software supporting the newly approved IEEE 1532 standard for in-system configurable (ISC) device programming, ispVM system v10.0.

Lattice's latest version of its ispVM system programming software, v10.0, generates ISC programming files for all Lattice ISC-compatible and compliant products.

Additionally, the ispVM system v10.0 software now accepts ISC programming files from non-Lattice, ISC-compliant devices.

By combining these various ISC programming files into a single "programming data stream", the ispVM system supports multivendor, in-system programming of entire chains of ISC-compliant devices, a capability offered by no other PLD vendor.

The ispVM System v10.0 software is available, free of charge, by download from the Lattice website.

Lattice has been an active participant in the IEEE 1532 Committee's effort to define an industry standard programming capability.

This capability has required two separate standardisation efforts: one for the hardware (programmable device) and a second for the software.

The hardware portion of the standard, finalised in August of 2000, defines common programming modes and instructions for IEEE 1532-compliant devices.

These ISC programming modes and instructions are an extension of the well-established IEEE 1149.1 boundary scan test infrastructure, which controls the basic communications between devices in a programming/test chain.

The software portion of the standard, now officially approved by the IEEE, defines the two files required for ISC-based programming.

The ISC BSDL file defines those extensions required to the standard Boundary Scan Description Language (BSDL) file required to support the ISC programming flows and algorithms.

The ISC BSDL file is device-specific (one file for each base part number).

The ISC data file describes the data that will be programmed into an ISC-compliant device.

The ISC data file is design-specific (one ISC data file for each unique customer logic design).

Lattice offers nine CPLD families that are either compatible or fully compliant with the IEEE 1532 Standard.

Lattice's fully compliant families include the recently released ispMACH 4000B (2.5V), ispMACH 4000C (1.8V) and ispMACH 5000VG (3.3V) CPLD families.

Compatible families include the popular ispLSI 5000VE (3.3V), ispMACH 4A3 (3.3V), ispMACH 4A5 (5V), ispLSI 2000VE (3.3V), ispLSI 2000VL (2.5V), and ispGDXV (3.3V) families.

The ISC BSDL files for these devices are available for immediate download from the Lattice website.

The ispVM System v10.0 programming software will generate an ISC for any of the nine product families mentioned above based on the user's device-specific design requirements.

"The full industry-wide impact of this new IEEE 1532 programming standard will be realised when the 3rd party device programming vendors, including suppliers of automated test equipment (ATE), boundary scan testers and device programmers begin to support this powerful new programming standard.

As many of these vendors are active participants on the IEEE 1532 Committee, I expect that most will have ISC support in place within the next 12 months", stated Steve Stark, Director of Product Marketing.

"Today, a Lattice customer can program entire chains of Lattice ISC-compatible and compliant devices simultaneously, driving significant manufacturing cost savings.

Tomorrow, Lattice tools, enabled by the IEEE 1532 programming standard, will be able to program entire multivendor chains of ISC compatible and compliant devices simultaneously", continued Stark.

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