DE2-70 Manual - Computation Structures Group

Chapter 4
DE2-70 Video Utility
25
DE2-70 User Manual
The DE2-70 board comes with a video utility that allows users to access video components on the
board from a host computer. The host computer communicates with the board through the
USB-Blaster link. The facility can be used to verify the functionality of video components on the
board, capture the video sent from the video-in ports, or display desired pattern on the VGA port.
This chapter first presents some basic functions of the Video Utility control panel, then describes its
structure in block diagram form, and finally describes its capabilities.
4.1 Video Utility Setup
The Video Utility is located in the “DE2_70_video utility/SW” folder in the DE2-70 System
CD-ROM. To install it, just copy the whole folder to your host computer. Launch the Video Utility
by executing the “DE2_70_AV_UTILITY.exe”.
Specific configuration files should be downloaded to your FPGA board before the Control Panel
can request it to perform required tasks. The configuration files include one .sof file and one .elf file.
To download the codes, simply click the “Download Code” button on the program. The program
will call Quartus II and Nios II tools to download the control codes to the FPGA board through
USB-Blaseter[USB-0] connection. The .sof file is downloaded to FPGA. The .elf file is downloaded
to SDRAM-U1.
To activate the Video Utility, perform the following steps:
1. Make sure Quartus II and Nios II are installed successfully on your PC.
2. Connect the supplied USB cable to the USB Blaster port, connect the 12V power supply,
and turn the power switch ON
3. Set the RUN/PROG switch to the RUN position
4. Start the executable DE2_70_AV_Utility.exe on the host computer. The Video Utility user
interface shown in Figure 4.1 will appear.
5. Click the “Download Code” button. The Control Panel will occupy the USB port until you
close that port; you cannot use Quartus II to download a configuration file into the FPGA
until you close the USB port.
6. The Video Utility is now ready for use.