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Re: Carte Blanche

srkh28@gmail.com wrote:

Hi Michael,


Steve, it wasn't immediately apparent whether it was possible to
re-program the board while it is installed by running Apple II software.


Carte Blache will tri-state its Apple II bus when the card is
reprogrammed when in stalled in a system all ready running. You can
develop on the fly with executing software on the Apple II, but you
need to ensure your Apple II software waits whilst the card reloads
with a new design ie, dosent expect anything from it. Once the the new
carte blanche design has been loaded into Carte Blanche and it has re-
gained control of itself again, the bus is reconnected to the FPGA.



This would enable it to be a real "chameleon card", since configurations
could be loaded into the card in a few seconds to alter its personality.



I agree. I havent tried it (yet), but it is designed to behave this
way. Just need to make sure the Apple II dosent rely on the card when
its reconfigured, and that when the new design is loaded into carte
blanche and goes active, that it applies itself back to the running
apple II bus with a little courtsey (ie - the new design dosent decide
assert reset!)


I was actually hoping for a solution that allowed the *Apple II* to
reprogram the card from a configuration file stored on its file system,
followed by a re-initialization of the card.

In other words, I'd like to be able to reconfigure the card without
connecting it to any other system.

As was discussed a month or two back, the Apple II is quite capable
of handling the data rates and file sizes associated with configuration.

I suppose a switch to put it in "configurable" mode would be OK, but
I'd rather have the card recognize a little "dance" on an address
to unlock it for reprogramming, so it can be done with the top on.  ;-)

-michael

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