FastChip Device Link (FDL) Connection Problems on Samsung Laptops

There have been reports of connection and download problems using FastChip Device Link (FDL) on some Samsung laptops.

FDL Failure Mode

If you open FastChip Device Link, and the JTAG cable is connected to a powered target board, the session output window should say “Connected to target.” However, on Samsung laptops, it shows nothing in the session output window.

csoc download Failure Mode

You can also directly download a design using the command line. For example, to download the MyDesignE5 design example, type …

csoc download mydesigne5.cfg

… on the command line.

The DOS command window on a Samsung laptop displays "downloading to TE520..." but the download program sits there without any progress.

Work-Around

The cause of this problem is a resource conflict with FDL’s default connection port, 5000. Apparently, port 5000 is used for some other resource on Samsung laptops.

There is a simple workaround for this problem.

Create a new file called triscend.props or open it, if one already exists under your FastChip installation directory.

Add the following line to the file.

triscend.defaultSpiderPort=6000

Save the triscend.props file to your FastChip installation directory. If you installed FastChip 2.2.0 in the default location, the installation directory is C:\Triscend\FastChip. Be sure that Windows did not append some other file extension. The file must be called triscend.props.

Restart FastChip Device Link (FDL).

FastChip Version: 2.2.0

This solution may or may not apply to other versions of the FastChip development system.