Rlink and Backend Server setup

After a board has been connected and configured and vt100 emulator windows have been started with console_starter, the backend server can be started and an oskits or a bare metal code like an mcode be executed.

The first step is to ensure that the switches on the FPGA board have the correct setting for w11 operation. The usage of the available switches, bottons and LEDs is documented in the top entity of the respective design. The default setting for w11 operation is given in the next section.

Finally, the backend server is started the ti_w11 quick start wrapper script

  ti_w11 <opt> <script>

with options <opt> that define to connection setup to the board and the a Tcl script <script> that defines the system configuration. Alternatively, ti_w11 can start a GHDL based simulation model for a w11 design.

The default switch settings and options for FPGA board connections and GHDL simulation runs are

w11 design	Link	SWI	FPGA Options	GHDL Options	Comment
sys_w11a_arty	FT2232HQ	0110	-tuD,12M,break,xon	-ar
sys_w11a_as7	FT2232HQ	0110	-tuD,12M,break,xon
sys_w11a_b3	FT2232HQ	00000000 00101000	-tuD,12M,break,xon	-b3	176 kB memory only
sys_w11a_c7	FT2232HQ	n/a	-tuD,12M,break,xon	-c7	672 kB memory only
sys_w11a_n4d	FT2232HQ	00000000 00101000	-tuD,12M,break,cts	-n4d
sys_w11a_n4	FT2232HQ	00000000 00101000	-tuD,12M,break,cts	-n4
sys_w11a_n3	FX2	00101100	-u	-n3
sys_w11a_n2	FX2	00101100	-u	-n2
sys_w11a_s3	USB-RS232	00101010	-tu<dn>,460k,break,xon	-s3

Notes:

a detailed documentation ti_w11 is available via man ti_w11.
the letter after -tu is either the serial device number, denoted as <dn>, or the letter D for auto-detection of Digilent boards with an FT2232HQ based interface.
- for Arty A7, Basys3, Cmod A7, Nexys4, and Nexys A7 board simply use D
- otherwise check with ls /dev/ttyUSB* to see what is available
- <dn> is typically '1' if a single FT2232HQ based board is connected, like an Arty, Basys3, Cmod A7, or Nexys4. Initially, two ttyUSB devices show up, the lower is for FPGA configuration and will disappear when the Vivado hardware server is used once. The upper provides the data connection.
- <dn> is typically '0' if only a single USB-RS232 cable is connected
the LEDs are used, if available, by default to show the PDP-11 display register. On boards with less then 16 LEDs the pattern is folded. Other usages are on some boards available with SWI(3)
```
  0 -> system status
  1 -> DR emulation --> OS specific light patterns
```

the hex display, if available, can be controlled with SWI(5:4)

boards with a 4 digit display

00 -> serial link rate divider
01 -> PC
10 -> DISPREG
11 -> DR emulation

boards with 8 digit display

SWI(5) select for DSP(7:4) display
    0 -> serial link rate divider
    1 -> PC
SWI(4) select for DSP(3:0) display
    0 -> DISPREG
    1 -> DR emulation

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Rlink and Backend Server setup

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