Hi,

I need an advice from FPGA experts 😀

I plan to build a vintage DAW from the early 2000.
What was financialy out of my reach at these times, is now cheaper than a Voodoo1... Yes, if you are looking for vintage ProTools hardware, you can find absolute bargains !!
This kind of hardware is still very capable compared to actual crappy USB audio interfaces. The counterpart is that you have to deal with PCI, FireWire, Win2K/XP...

I've just found an RME Multiface at a very decent price. This is an external audio interface linked to motherboard with a dedicated PCI card. It uses a FireWire cable but RME developped its own communication protocol between the external box and the PCI card. So it is NOT FireWire.
An ExpressCard 34mm went with the interface to use the Multiface with a laptop computer, as well as an ExpressCard to PCIe adapter card to use the Multiface with more modern motherboards.
This is the great strenght of RME : the Multiface is about 25 years old but you can still use it on Windows 11.

But I've got a problem.
The ExpressCard as well as the PCIe adapter are working well on laptop and desktop computers, but I want to use the PCI card on a vintage motherboard.
The problem is that when this PCI card is inserted in a slot, it prevents the PC to POST. I made the test on different PCI slots and on 4 different motherboard (from Super Socket 7 to LGA1150), without any success. It's a very tiny board with an EEPROM, a Xilinx CPLD, a Xilinx FPGA (XC2S100), two LDOs, a driver and a receiver for the "FireWire-like" link (I can provide picts if needed).
When switching ON, an 5V to 3.3V LDO gets quickly very hot as well as the FPGA. This LDO provides the VCC0 voltage for the FPGA
After measuring the output voltage of this LDO on the PCB, I read 1.2V instead of 3.3V and when measuring the resistance between this LDO output (i.e. FPGA VCC0) and GND, I get about 1 ohm which is way to low and can explain the burning-skin FPGA temperature.
Normally, the quiescent current of this FPGA is at max 100mA (according to the datasheet), so I think the FPGA is toast.
I desoldered the LDO and I still get the 1 ohm resistance between VCC0 and GND...

My question :
I don't know well FPGA black magic but in my old memories, you have to program it to set it up the way you want.
If I replace the toast one by a brand new out-of-the-box one, would it work without any "factory re-flashing" ?
Keep in mind that there is an EEPROM on the board so I think the firmware may be loaded every time you turn it on, but I'm not sure...

Your help is very appreciated!

Cheers,
JB