
2 FAQ’s for Actel’s Antifuse FPGA Programming
Table of Contents
General ........................................................................................................................... 6
1. What programmers can I use to program Actel devices? ............................................................. 6
Programmers ................................................................................................................. 6
Silicon Sculptor II and III........................................................................................................................... 6
2. Where can I find a list of the supported devices for the Silicon Sculptor programmer? ............... 6
3. What is the Power-On Self-Test (POST) for Silicon Sculptor? ..................................................... 6
4. Does the Silicon Sculptor programmer have any memory? Does it retain any programming data
after the programming? ................................................................................................................. 7
5. Where can I find a list of adapter module part numbers for Silicon Sculptor? .............................. 7
6. Is there any limit on how many devices can be programmed with a Silicon Sculptor adapter
module? ......................................................................................................................................... 8
7. Can I use the same module for different devices? For example, if I have an SM84P-ACTEL-1
module, can I use it to program an A1020B-PL84 or an A3265DX-PL84 device? ....................... 8
8. How to debug continuity failures? ................................................................................................. 8
9. Can I use Silicon Sculptor Adapter Modules to program Actel devices with other BP
programmers such as BP1710, BP2710 or vice versa? ............................................................... 9
10. The self test failed for the BGA329 Adapter Module for Silicon Sculptor. Is there any specific
handling required?......................................................................................................................... 9
11. How frequently should I run the self test? ................................................................................... 10
12. How do I perform Silicon Sculptor’s calibration verification? ...................................................... 10
13. How do I setup Silicon Sculptor for concurrent programming? ................................................... 10
14. What is the maximum number of Silicon Sculptor II or 3 programmers that I can daisy-chain? 10
Activator.................................................................................................................................................. 11
15. How can I verify that the software driver for the Activator (2/2S) is configured properly? .......... 11
16. How do I configure the Adaptec AVA-1505A SCSI Card for Windows
®
95/98? ......................... 11
17. How do I configure the Adaptec AVA-1505 SCSI Card for Windows NT 4.0? ........................... 11
18. Can I use an existing Adaptec SCSI Controller on a PC? .......................................................... 11
19. How can I determine what IRQ and I/O addresses are used by the installed add-in cards? ..... 12
20. The green power light is blinking after I turn on the power in Activator. What is the problem? .. 12
21. What does the error message “SCSI Controller not found” (PC only) mean? ............................ 12
22. What does the error message “Firmware load failed. WARNING: Could Not Connect With
Activator 2” mean? ...................................................................................................................... 12
23. What does the message “Error: Activator communication link down. Exiting” mean? ............... 13
24. Is there any memory in the Actel Activator programmer? ........................................................... 13
25. Where can I find a list of adapter module part numbers for Activator? ....................................... 13
26. How do I run the Activator 2 test Procedure? ............................................................................. 13
27. How frequently do I need to calibrate Actel Activators?.............................................................. 14
28. How do I perform the Activator 2/2S calibration? ........................................................................ 14
29. What is the maximum number of Activator programmers that I can daisy chain? ...................... 14
30. Where can I get the APSW software?......................................................................................... 14
31. Does the programming software also work on HP/Solaris workstations? .................................. 14
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