ICE, ICE Baby

One of the tools I always wanted to own but in the past never could afford was an ICE (In Circuit Emulator), until…..

What is actually an In Circuit Emulator.

Here’s Wikipedia’s definition of in-circuit emulation:

In-circuit emulation (ICE) is the use of a hardware device or in-circuit emulator used to debug the software of an embedded system. It operates by using a processor with the additional ability to support debugging operations, as well as to carry out the main function of the system.

Being regularly on the StartDot.Org forum I found David Banks making an ICE using a German FPGA board (Godil) : https://github.com/hoglet67/AtomBusMon/wiki

As the “Original” Godil David used in his design is not available anymore Trenz-electronic does sell a board that is usable as well : https://shop.trenz-electronic.de/en/TE0262-00B-GODIL50-XC3S500E-DIL-FPGA-module-2-x-50-pin-IDC?c=97

In order to be able to use the alternative board I developed a small adapter board. See pictures below how I built it.

Finally I covered the top with a small piece of Plexiglas to avoid things falling on/in the ICE. The serial port is connected to the PC via a cheap Chinese RS232 TTL – USB adapter. For terminal emulation on Windows 10 I use Putty.

As a reference for myself I creates a small manual containing all the commands.

Several people have contacted me via mail whether I sell these adapter boards. For now I don’t have any plans but I’m happy to share the Gerber’s and the Kicad file.

The ICE-T in action

This week I also finished the Z80 version

Got Xilinx ISE Webpack 14.7 working on Windows 10, including the drivers for the programmer so can compile my own version now.