Driver and Diagnostics Software Installation Instructions

For use with the Microsoft Windows XP operating system

Note: We recommend that you use the default settings when installing the software for your ClearSpeed Advance^TM Accelerator Board. You will need to log in as a user with Administrator privileges to complete the software installation.

Before you install

Please note that this is Beta software. Before you install, please check the release notes for any known restrictions.
You should uninstall any previous version of this software before installing this release; see the uninstall instructions below.
This software requires the most recent version of the firmware on the board. See below for more information.

Checking and upgrading the board firmware

The Advance board contains an FPGA (field programmable gate array) which provides the PCI-X host interface and other logic. The data for this FPGA is stored in a flash memory on the board.

If you already have a version of the driver and diagnostics packages and a board installed then you can check, and upgrade if necessary, before continuing with the installation. Otherwise, you can do it after the installation instructions below.

The version of the FPGA image can be checked using the command csreset -Av. This will display information about the installed board including the version of the FPGA image. See the FPGA update release notes for the latest version numbers. If your board does not report the latest version number, it will need to be updated. The latest version can be downloaded from the ClearSpeed support web site. See the FPGA update release notes and the Advance Board User's Guide for instructions.

Step 1: Install the driver package

Download the Base Package zip file from the ClearSpeed support site support.clearspeed.com/downloads/.
Unzip the contents of the Base Package, making sure you preserve the directory structure. This will create a directory called something similar to csx_600_2.21_base containing the components of the package.
Navigate to the directory runtime containing the driver installation program, setup.exe.
Double-click the setup file to start the installation process
Follow the on-screen instructions to install the driver package

Running the setup program installs the runtime libraries and the driver to interface with the board.

Step 2: Install the board diagnostics package

After the drivers have been installed and configured, you can install the diagnostics package. This contains tools which will verify the correct functioning of the board and drivers.

To install the diagnostics package:

Navigate to the directory board_diagnostics in the Base Package directory.
Double-click the setup file to start the installation.

Step 3: Install board

If your Advance board is not already installed, now is the time to install it. Refer to the Advance Accelerator Board Installation Guide for details.

Step 4: Verify the installation of the board and drivers

You can now run the diagnostic program to check that the board and associated drivers have been successfully installed. This utility runs a number of tests on the installed board(s) and reports any problems.

Mandelbrot demonstration

You can run a simple Mandelbrot demonstration program as follows:

Double-click the desktop shortcut csx600_m512_le created by the installation; this opens a command window.
In the new window, run the following commands exactly as they appear here:

Reset the chip:

csreset -Av

Run the mandelbrot demo:

app_mandelbrot

When the program starts, it opens a window to display views of a Mandelbrot set. If this does not happen, please run the full diagnostic tests described below or contact support@clearspeed.com.

Press [Esc] to exit from the Mandelbrot program.

app_mandelbrot is based in part on the work of the FLTK project (www.fltk.org).

Diagnostic tests

If you have the Perl interpreter installed on your machine you can run the full set of tests. You can run the tests as follows:

Double-click the desktop shortcut csx600_m512_le to open a command window.
In the new window, run the following commands:

perl -S run_tests.pl

Note that some of these tests might take several minutes to run to completion.

ClearSpeed technical support may require the output of this utility to help diagnose any problems. If any of the tests fail, please contact support@clearspeed.com.

If you want to install Perl, you can download the latest version of this free software from:

http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/

Uninstalling

The software can be uninstalled using the Add or Remove Programs wizard in the Windows Control Panel, or by using the Uninstall Package menu command under the Start menu.