Hardware Driver Installation

The Createc electronics is based on the SBC6711 DSP board manufactured by Innovative Integration.

All communication between the SBC6711 and the PC is made via USB1.1.

An FPGA addon board called XEM3001 manufactured by OPAL Kelly provides a separate fast USB2.0 connection between PC and SBC6711.

This board is optional under Windows XP but necessary to allow operation under Windows 7 (64bit), because no device driver for the SBC6711 is available under Windows 7.

There are two basic operating modes of the SBC6711 board. In the first (default for WinXP) case the DSP program is downloaded via the USB 1.1 interface onto the SBC6711 during the initial boot process after power-on or reset every time the STMAFM software is started. In the second case the DSP program resides inside the Flash memory on the SBC6711 board. It is started directly from the board, i.e. no download is necessary. This second mode allows operating the SBC6711 without a device driver - a requirement for Windows 7 operation and an option for WinXP.

Because of these two modes as well as of historic reasons different boot configurations exist and the correct drivers and dlls have to be supplied. The different operating modes can be set in the stmafm.ini. Please goto Tools --> Initialization and select the parameter HW_platform (0: No Board).

HW-platform: 1. Windows XP, SBC6711 (HW-Platform: 1) The SBC6711 driver has to be installed and the SBC6711.dll has to be in the program directory. The DSP program in the form of an SBC6711*.out file resides also in the program directory. It is automatically extracted from the pstmafm.exe file when the program is started. The DSP boot file is supplied via USB1.1. The STM program will use USB1.1.

HW-platform: 2. Windows XP, SBC6711, XEM3001 (firmware 2.x) Additionally the files okfrontpanel.dll and stmafm2fifo.bit have to be located in the program directory. The DSP boot file is supplied via USB1.1. The STM program will use USB2.0.

HW-platform: 3. Windows XP, SBC6711, XEM3001 (firmware 3.x) Additionally to 1. the files okfrontpanel32bitver3.dll and createc.bit have to be in the program directory. The DSP boot file is supplied via USB1.1. The STM program will use USB2.0. The newer firmware in the XEM3001 is required for Windows 7 compatibility only.

HW-platform: 4. Windows XP, SBC6711, XEM3001 (firmware 3.x) Additional to 3. a SBC6711*.bin file has to be flashed into onboard FlashROM using the programs Flash utility from the Tools menu. The DSP will boot from flash. The STM program will use USB2.0. The driver for the XEM3001 has to be installed, the SBC6711 driver is not necessary as the USB1.1 is not used any more.

HW-platform: 4. Windows 7 (64bit), SBC6711, XEM3001 (firmware 3.x) Same as above, but the XEM3001 driver located in the program directory is named okfrontpanel64bit.dll. The DSP will boot from flash. The STM program will use USB2.0. The driver for the XEM3001 has to be installed, there is no SBC6711 driver available.

Remarks: For new installations XEM3001 firmware 3.x is recommended as it allows booting from flash.

XEM3001 firmware files

Frontpanel 32-bit software for firmware 2.x Frontpanel 32-bit software for firmware 3.x Frontpanel 64-bit software for firmware 3.x

Okfrontpanel.dll okfrontpanel32bitV3.dll okfrontpanel64bit.dll

Createc.bit stmafm2fifo.bit

To switch from HW-platform 2 or 3 (booting from USB1.1) to 4 (booting from flash), please follow these instructions.