Watch The Program Run
As with with any first program on a development board, they're never terribly impressive however they prove that you can load programs onto the board which is a gigantic first step for any first project that must be programmed. So now lets take a look at what the program does:
So if either switch is 'on' the LED lights up but if both switches are on or both are off the led turns off. If we take a quick look at our schematic this is exactly what should happen. You can draw out the truth table for it to prove it to yourself if you like.
One additional thing about the two programming methods; JTAG is an industrial standard that almost every device can use. It's been around for a long time and is very useful for quick & dirty approaches to debuging code. For the DE2 it offers a quick load onto the FPGA without compromising the current program. This means if we switch the bored off right now and turn it back on, the program will no longer be there, the previous one will.
The other method of active serial programming actually puts the program on the fpga. For this mode you move that switch on the left hand side of the board down to 'Prog'. Try using this programming method if you have a moment.
As with with any first program on a development board, they're never terribly impressive however they prove that you can load programs onto the board which is a gigantic first step for any first project that must be programmed. So now lets take a look at what the program does:
So if either switch is 'on' the LED lights up but if both switches are on or both are off the led turns off. If we take a quick look at our schematic this is exactly what should happen. You can draw out the truth table for it to prove it to yourself if you like.
One additional thing about the two programming methods; JTAG is an industrial standard that almost every device can use. It's been around for a long time and is very useful for quick & dirty approaches to debuging code. For the DE2 it offers a quick load onto the FPGA without compromising the current program. This means if we switch the bored off right now and turn it back on, the program will no longer be there, the previous one will.
The other method of active serial programming actually puts the program on the fpga. For this mode you move that switch on the left hand side of the board down to 'Prog'. Try using this programming method if you have a moment.