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Diamond Programmer Guide

This guide explains how to flash a single bitmap onto the ETH4K using Diamond Programmer.

Installation​

caution

This guide uses the standalone Diamond Programmer, not Lattice Diamond.

  1. Download the Programmer Standalone package from https://www.latticesemi.com/latticediamond.
  2. Run the installer.

Download the Project (Optional)​

This guide assumes that you have already generated a bitmap for the ETH4K. If you would like to use the same bitmap as this guide, you can download and extract the eth4k-demo-guide.zip file.

After extracting this .zip file, you will find a bitmap file named top_bitmap.bin in the my-project directory. This bitmap makes LED1 blink once per second.

Programming the ETH4K​

tip

We provide a Diamond Programmer project file called eth4k-boilerplate.xcf which already contains the ETH4K configuration. We recommend cloning this file whenever creating a new Diamond Programmer project.

  1. Download eth4k-boilerplate.xcf.zip from https://www.thetamachines.com/downloads/hardware/eth4k-boilerplate.xcf.zip.
  2. Extract the zip file to obtain the eth4k-boilerplate.xcf file.
  3. Launch Diamond Programmer.
  4. In the Getting Started window, select Open an existing programmer project, choose the eth4k-boilerplate.xcf file, and click OK.

  1. Under File Name, select the bitmap you wish to program the FPGA with. In this example, we're using top_bitmap.bin.

  1. Make sure the ETH4K is plugged into your computer.
  2. Click the Detect Cable button under Cable Settings.

  1. Select the option that says ETH4K A and click OK.

  1. Finally program the device by clicking the program button () in the top toolbar.
    • You can also click Design > Program.
  2. If all goes well, the output terminal will print Operation: successful. Your device is now programmed.

Saving the Programmer Project​

The eth4k-boilerplate.xcf file is only a starting point for your projects. For that reason, it's good practice to save your own .xcf file for each project.

  1. In Diamond Programmer, Click File > Save [file-name.xcf] As...
  2. Save the file in your project's root directory, naming it something like programming-config.xcf.