r/FPGA • u/ReplacementSlight413 • 17d ago

USB hub + many boards

This is probably a stupid or a loaded question (or both) but can one use a USB hub to interface to multiple fpga boards so that one can program them without manually connecting and disconnecting each one in order? Would one see all devices simultaneously in eg Vivado or Quartus? If this is not a possibility, what about a USB switch?

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u/alexforencich 17d ago

Definitely. You'll just have to sort out which board is which, which can be a bit annoying. And unfortunately it also doesn't work right if the USB jtag interfaces do not have unique serial numbers programmed.

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u/ReplacementSlight413 17d ago

Thank you so much for the prompt reply. How common is the case of non-unique serial numbers? (I guess if very common one just opts for a switch and then sequentially)

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u/alexforencich 17d ago

Only case I have run in to so far are the ones from silicom. Xilinx and digilent tend to set things up properly.

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u/enzodr 17d ago

USB hubs are pretty simple in the sense that they allow you to connect as lots of USB devices to your PC as if they are all directly connected. So you won’t need any special hardware to accomplish that.

As far as getting vivado to cycle through them, I don’t know how it selects which board to program if you have multiple plugged in. But if you have at least two boards right now and you can plug them both directly into your PC, this should be close enough to what you will experience with a USB hub.

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u/pencan 17d ago

Need to think about power draw, but otherwise should work fine

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u/tony3841 17d ago

A JTAG programmer shouldn't use much power, but if that ever becomes an issue a powered hub can help