SmartFusion2

Installation process

Download

Download from:

http://www.actel.com/download/software/liberosoc/files.aspx?os=WIN

Get a free 1 year license

Goto: http://www.actel.com/Portal/DPortal.aspx and choose "Libero Gold Node Locked for Windows" You need to register an account if you have not allready done so.

Find out your Disk Serial Number

Windows 8:

1. Open up a command prompt window by right clicking anywhere on the Start Screen and then click on "All apps". Scroll to the right until you find the "Windows System" section heading, and click on the "Command Prompt" tile.

2. Type in: vol.

3. The Volume Serial Number is the Disk Serial Number.

Windows XP / Windows Vista / Windows 7:

1. Open up a command prompt window (Start Menu > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt).

2. Type in: vol.

3. The Volume Serial Number is the Disk Serial Number.

It will take a couple of hours before the license arrives.

Install

Start LiberoSoCv11

• Select Install Libero SoC (not the SA)
• Select to install ALL
  • Synplify Pro
  • SoftConsole
  • Synphony
  • Identify
  • ModelSim
  • Fusion
  • Igloo, Igloo nano
  • Igloo Plus
  • Iglooe
  • ProAsic3
  • ProAsic3E
  • ProAsic3L
  • SmartFusion
  • SmartFusion2

Apply and install license if you not already have a license installed.

Start up Libero and select the tab marked "Catalog" in the bottom left. Press the button above saying to download new cores.

Tutorials

Programming of the SF2 takes a loooong time, even before the activity light starts to flash on the FlashPro4. Don't despair, the program is probably not crashed. The tutorials were made for an early version of Libero11, but the text has somewhat been updated to be in line with the release version of Libero11. In case of doubt, refer to the text and use common sense. Some of the demo C code has also changed.

The tutorials are made for the SF2-STARTER-KIT-ES-2 which contains the BGA896 SF2 engineering sample (ES stamped on bottom left on chip). Newer starterkits may contain other devices and the device configuration would thus be different.

The small white usb stick in the SF2 starter kit is a wifi device.

Most of the "answers for questions" strongly depend on the chip and the version of the software and thus are not correct.

For the tutorials using the rs232, don't use the reset button as it will garble the text. Relaunch the debugger instead.

Don't use spaces in the path to were you keep the design files as Modelsim handles this badly.

The tutorial files can be found on mikroserver1 in the folder /prog/cadence/SF2_tutorial

Other designfiles and documents can be found here: http://emcraft.com/products/153

Add tips or corrections for tutorials below.

Tutorial 2: SF2 USB

The mass storage test didn't work with a Sandisk cruizer 4GB micro.

Use of Questasim with SF2 cores

• Rightclick in the library pan of Questasim and choose new->Library.
• Choose "A map to an existing library".
• Set Library name to "SmartFusion2" and path to "c:/Microsemi/Libero_v11.1/Designer/lib/modelsim/precompiled/vhdl/SmartFusion2" or correct it to the place where you installed libero.
• Include the library in the files where you need SF2 cores

The same applies for other actel devices.

Libero errors, warnings and problems

• If you get "Warning: CMP008: module_name is not an Actel cell defined in the cell library." it means the mentioned module was not included in the synthesis and thus assumed to be an Actel standard module. Rightclick synthesis and select "Organize input files->Organize source files" select the mentioned module and press add.
• Generate programming data fails without explanation: Constraint format has changed between Libero versions. Generate a new constraint file using the I/O editor based on the data in the old constraint file.
• When a project is opened, if there is a message saying that the project is already open in another instance of Libero, go to the folder tooldata in the project directory and delete a file called libero.xyzv. Where xyzv is some four digit number.