Several
essential, but unrelated, functions are presented under the Tools
menu. These operations allow, among other things, the exporting
of of defined waveforms to "C" programming language data
structures. Also, waveforms defined using Cypress' older GPIF
tool can be imported into GPIF
Designer
from the Tools
menu.
GPIF
Designer is able to manage up to 8 sets (i.e. banks) of waveform
descriptors. Each bank consists of 4 waveform descriptors,
which are displayed on the 4 waveform editor tab pages. At
any one time, only one bank of waveform descriptors is displayed.
However, the displayed bank of descriptors can be switched
via the Tools|Select
Waveform Bank
menu item.
The
bank number of the currently active waveform bank is displayed
at the bottom of each waveform editor tab page, as shown above.
By
default, only a single waveform bank is enabled. To enable
additional banks,
use the File|Properties
menu.
Each
of the 4 waveforms can be configured to perform any arbitrary
function (single/fifo read or write). That is, there is
no constraint on what function must be implemented on any given
waveform tab page. For instance, after performing a File|New
operation, the 4 waveform tabs are labelled, successively
as Single
Read, Single Write, Fifo Read,
and Fifo
Write, as shown below. (After
a File|New
operation, there are no waveforms defined. So, the labelling
of the tabs is completely arbitrary.)
In
the Fifo design example, shown below, the first waveform tab
has been used to define a FIFORd operation. The second
waveform has been used to define a FIFOWr operation. The
3rd and 4th waveforms are unused.
Because
there is no requirement that waveform tab labels reflect the
actual function of the waveform defined on that page, and because
the designer is allowed the freedom of placing any functional
waveform on any tab page, a mapping is needed to tell the GPIF
what function is really found on each waveform tab page.
This
mapping is defined in the GPIF register, WFSELECT, and is configured
via the Tools|Map
Waveforms to WFSELECT . . .
menu item. The Map
Waveforms to WFSELECT
dialog box is shown below, with the configuration of the FIFO
design example.
Note
that, after a File|New operation, the 4 waveforms have
been mapped into WFSELECT such that the function named in the
tab label would be appropriate for that tab sheet. That
is, after a File|New operation, the designer could implement
the Single Read function in the first waveform, the
Single Write function in the second waveform, the FIFO
Read function in waveform #3 and the FIFO Write function in
the last waveform. If the designer created these waveform
functions, corresponding to the default waveform tab labels,
the WFSELECT mapping would not need to be changed.
The
principal objective in defining a set of GPIF waveforms is to
generate the waveform descriptors, as "C" language
data structures for inclusion in a firmware project
for the FX / FX2. Once the block diagram has been specified
and the waveforms have been correctly defined using the waveform
editors, GPIF Designer can generate correct "C" language
data structures to be used in programming the device.
The
generation of the data structures is accomplished via the Tools|Export
to GPIF.c file
menu item. When this menu item is invoked, the user will
be prompted to specify a location and file name for the data
structures. It is important to understand that the Export
to GPIF.c file
function completely over-writes the specified file with
the waveform descriptor data. It does NOT merely append
or insert the data structures into an existing file. For
this reason, the user will usually want to specify a new file
as the target of the Export operation.
Also note that
it is not necessary to export the waveform descriptor data structures
to the same directory as the GPIF Designer project file.
The
file generated by the Tools|Export to GPIF.c file function contains
many comments reflecting the original GPIF Designer project
file from which the data structures were derived. These
comments contain strings that reflect waveform tab labels and
block diagram configurations such as CTL and RDY line labels.
In order to generate a "*.c" file compatible
with the older GPIF tool, many of these labels are truncated
when exported to the "*.c" file. One should
expect to lose some string information if attempting to import
a file generated by the Tools|Export to GPIF.c file operation.
The
primary vehicle for saving and loading GPIF waveform designs
is the File
menu. The Tools|Export/Import
functions do not retain or recover all the information stored
in a GPIF Designer (*.gpf) file.
GPIF
Designer is the second-generation of Cypress tools for defining
GPIF waveform descriptors for the FX/FX2. Waveform descriptors
generated by the previous tool can be read into GPIF Designer
via the
Tools|Import older EZ-USB FX GPIF.c file
and Tools|Import
older FX2 GPIF.c file
menu items.
Because the file formats generated by the
older tool differ for EZ-USB FX and FX2, separate import menu
items are used to import the appropriate file types. Be
sure to invoke the correct operation for the file type that
is to be imported.
Note that, in order for the import
functions to work, the target file must be in a format compatible
with the old tool. If the file has been manually modified
so as to render its format incompatible with the older
GPIF tool, the import functions will fail to import the file.