We were asked frequently when we first introduced our FPGA and CPLD development products for a low cost JTAG programmer compatible with our boards and the Xilinx development software. We responded and developed the Parallel port cable based on the Xilinx original reference design.

Since then we have been asked by those who no longer have a parallel port on their desktop or laptop for a USB design that doesn't depend on a USB-Parallel Port adapter. We looked long and hard and finally found a vendor with a Xilinx Platform USB compatible unit that was at a reasonable price point. We got one and have been evaluating it on our lab for the last couple of months.

I'm pleased to say it has worked on everything we have thrown at it and has become our main Xilinx JTAG tool for final test on all of our Xilinx development boards. We are now happy to add it to our product lineup. You can order it directly here.

The unit is compact, USB bus powered and works with target voltages from 1.5 to 3.3V. We are trying to determine if it can also be used with 5V IO. It has both a ribbon cable jumper and a flying lead cable. The 2mm ribbon cable connector pinout is identical to the Xilinx platform USB cable.

These are in stock now and we can generally get them from our supplier in 3-4 days if we run out.

Send post as PDF to