Hello,

I was originally thinking of making an adapter or contacting the designer of the omla32 to see if he wanted to make a version for the Butterfly Platform. But then I came to the realization that the Flash Programmer project that I want to proceed with would need a similiar buffer scheme as the Logic Analyzer project would. At this point my thinking is that it makes more sense to make an adapter for both the Logic Analyzer and the Flash Programmer at the same time.

As far as timing goes, there are a couple of things that need to happen first. But a buffer card is on my short term agenda. Here is my plan of attack for the short term:

• Finish defining the Butterfly Platform. My goal is to specify two types of boards, Cocoons which stack and provide core functionality and Wings which plugin and provide peripheral functionality. I'm targeting the Logic Analyzer and Flash Programmer buffer as the first example of a Wing.
• Update the S3E FPGA Cocoon to revision 2 in order to support the new Wing concept. I will make every effort to maintain backwards compatibility. If I cannot I will offer discounts or a straight trade for anyone with revision 1 boards.
• Create a Wing that implements a 40 channel buffer, a header for Logic Analyzer use, a ZIF and tsop socket for Flash Programmer use. Two adjustable Voltage Regulators to generate VPP and VCC and a physical method to connect VPP and VCC to all pins of the sockets. Connecting the votages will be a manual process with jumper wires to keep cost down while maintaining flexibility.

The biggest concern I have about putting the Logic Analyzer and Flash Programmer functionality on one wing is how will it affect signals that are being sampled by the Logic Analyzer. I might abandon the idea and do two seperate Wings if it starts to sound like a bad idea.

I'm hoping to focus on this and make some progress in the next couple of weeks. But you know how easy it is to get sidetracked. One potential project that might sidetrack my short term agenda is an ARM7 Cocoon. A colleague has a potential ARM7 design that he might want to bring to the Butterfly Platform. If that works out it will take precedence for a while.

Hope this gives you a better idea of what I'm trying to accomplish in the short term.

Jack.