Reading FPGA memory block from PC
I am using Xilinx ISE 14.7 synthesizer. I can initialize my BRAM with a .coe file and access it. Also I can update it with a new .mem file using data2mem tool and update the bit file. Here I have configured it as a ROM.
My problem is that I don't know how to store the BRAM content in a file. I am using a single port memory block from a kernel generator. I am setting it up as RAM. I want to write data and access it later. I have not found a related post that talks about this. Maybe this is the only one who hasn't found a way to save the content to a file. For example, the Altera Internal Memory Content Editor has the ability to export data to a file. Is there such a way in Xilinx, or is there some way to do it with the data2mem tool?
I can send the contents of the memory to the PC using the serial port, but that's not my problem right now. I'm really looking for a way to save the content to a file (possibly a .mem file) and use it in MATLAB. Can someone explain this to me or point a doc or some kind of link. I went through the relevant documentation, but it didn't go to my head. Any suggestion would be much appreciated. Also tell me if I am wrong.
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Let me be clear, do you want to initialize BRAM with some data, then do some processing on it, then automatically download it to the PC and do further analysis? If I am correct you also need to clarify if you need a production or debug solution, for production you need to develop a data dump module and connect it to a specific communication module, but for debugging purposes you can do this with jtag (remember dumping bram content at runtime using jtag will mess up your data! make sure the schema is stopped and nothing updates bram during reset), if you have a Zynq device you can try:
https://forums.xilinx.com/t5/7-Series-FPGAs/read-bram-from-jtag-or-uart-or-zynq-PS/td-p/738600
otherwise try with readback
7series fpga's function
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