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M3602A Basics

There are two project types:

• Hardware project designed for a specific M3xxxA hardware product
• FPGA block project for user generated IPs

Hardware Project

See Creating the Main Hardware Project

A hardware project contains the customizable resources of the programmable FPGA of an M3xxxA hardware module. When selecting a target module, the project is opened with the factory settings of a standard module. The custom on-board solution is developed within this hardware project and is saved, compiled and loaded into the hardware module (the binary can be loaded into multiple identical modules). As per Figure 3, part of the hardware project can be made up of FPGA user block projects, which are created as follows.

FPGA Block Project

See Creating an FPGA Block Project

The purpose of an FPGA Block project is to create independent user FPGA blocks. They can be designed to provide custom functionality to other projects. These blocks once created, can be saved and reused in other hardware projects, and in other FPGA Block projects as shown in Figure 3.

GUI Menu Selections

Hardware Projects and FPGA Block GUI Selections

When a Hardware Project or FPGA Block editor window is launched, the following GUI choices are available. See tables 1 and 2 for more information.

Keysight M3602A Menu Selections

Table:1

Keysight M3602A Icons Selections

	Icon	Description
1		Creates a new hardware project
2		Creates a new FPGA Block
3		Open a file, such as a project file
4		Saves a project file
5		Adds an External Block
6		Adds an FPGA Block
7		Undoes changes
8		Redoes changes
9		Redraw Connections
10		Fit In Window
11		Launches the Vivado Tool
12		Imports Vivado IPs
13		Imports Vivado IP Locations
14		Generates firmware

Table: 2

Creating the Main Hardware Project

As per section 1.2.1 a hardware project contains the customizable resources of the programmable FPGA of an M3xxxA hardware module. When created, the project can be edited, saved, compiled and loaded into the hardware module (the binary can be loaded into multiple identical modules). These are the steps to create a hardware project:

1. Launch the application program by clicking on the M3602A software icon.
   
   
   
2. To create a new hardware project, click on the blank icon shown highlighted as shown as follows.
   
   
   
   
3. The card selection dialog box appears. Provided that M3602A is installed in the chassis controller, the cards plugged into the chassis will be presented. Also, a comprehensive collection of the M3xxxA demo modules is selectable.
   
   
   
   
   When one of the populated chassis cards is selected, M3602A gathers the hardware information, and option buttons are grayed (hardware options are defined at the time of purchase and are not upgradable).
   
   
   
   
   
   Click OK.
   
   Alternatively, Demo modules can be loaded with multiple options.
   
   
   
   For populated real hardware modules, step 4 can be skipped.
   
   
   
4. Configure the scroll down buttons options.
   
   
   
   Where:
   
   

   Option	Description
   CH:	Select the number of channels: for example, CH4 or CH8
   CLK:	Select the clock: CLF or CLV
   FPGA:	Select the FPGA, for example, FP1-K32 or FP1-K41
   RAM:	Select the RAM, for example, M20,
   DMod:	Select the DMod, for example, DM1 or None
   HVI	Select the HVI, for example, HV1 or None

   More information can be found in the M31/M33XX Digitizer User's Guide and the M32/M33XX AWG User's Guide.
   
   
5. If the module has been configured correctly, a new “untitled” hardware project will be pulled.
   
   Populated chassis hardware will be pulled with its product name.
   
   
   
   

6. Review the default hardware configuration. Default functionality for each hardware module comes with ports, blocks and their connections. The default configuration can be edited for additional processing functions. See Editing Actions

7. Add hardware and library components from the selections available on the right side of the GUI, see Hardware and Library Components
8. Add component blocks as needed to create the hardware project, see:
   Adding and Editing Blocks
   Importing User IPs
   Importing Vivado IPs
   
9. Connect the signals between the blocks, see Connecting Ports
10. Once the hardware project has been completed, save it, and give it an appropriate title, using File > Save As

Hardware/FW Management

When a project has been created, it can be saved. Once saved, it can be reloaded later to make further changes to it. The associated hardware and its firmware can be managed within a hardware project.

As can be seen in the following image, there are three selections in the Module menu drop-down to manage the project work flow:

Module menu drop-down

• Assign hardware...
• Generate firmware...
• Load firmware...

Assigning Hardware

Select Module > Assign Hardware...

Before hardware can be assigned, the project needs to be saved.

Click Save

Select the module to assign the software project to.

Click OK to assign the selected module to the project.

Generate Firmware

Select Module > Generate Firmware...

The M3602A software will connect to the cloud server, and start the firmware generation process. If the generation finishes successfully, the firmware file will be created inside the project folder. For more information and details, please see Generating FPGA Bitstream

Load Firmware

Select Module > Load Firmware...

Select the "..." button highlighted above and navigate to the firmware file to be loaded.

Once selected, click the Load button to load the firmware into the hardware module.

Hardware and Library Components

Much of the hardware project will be created by combining components from the three sections displayed on the right side of the GUI. These are divided into Hardware components and Library components.

Hardware components

• Hardware ports
  These ports enable communication between the hardware project and the rest of the resources of the FPGA. The available type of ports are dependent of the hardware project. In the list below, each port has a different function. For example, the PC_Port selection allows for programming communications to the PC.
  
• Hardware blocks
  These are IP blocks which are a core part of the default factory setting configuration of the hardware modules. Blocks in this section can be selected by double-clicking on them. A window with a description will pop-up, and the block will be added to the hardware project, ready to be connected to other components in the project. These blocks have a dark red color, and they reflect the functionality of the card associated with the hardware project. As an example, an M320xA or M330xA AWG might include an additional Function Generator to combine multiple tones in the generation path.
  
  
  
  

Library components

• Blockset IP
  This section includes the library of components that can be selected to complete a hardware project. Blocks are grouped in different generic families (i.e. Basic, Connectors, DSP & Control, etc.). The available blocksets of a family will be displayed after a single-click, and a double-click on a selection will pop up a dialog message with description and configurable parameters, which upon OK selection will be added to the project.
  
  
  
  
  
  

Other IP Blocks

In addition to these components, IP blocks can be brought in from the following sources:

• New blocks can be created from scratch and have an orange color. Creating an FPGA Block Project
• Blocks imported into a hardware or FPGA Block project as External IP have a blue color.
• Blocks imported from Vivado IP manager tool (using Vivado menu actions of UI) are dark yellow. Importing Vivado IPs