need some help with altera quartus

Hi all,


To learn VHDL and FPGAs, I bought a number of boards, one of them being 
this one: 
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/EP4CE10-altera-fpga-board-fpga-development-board-fpga-altera-board-fpga-development-board/32637947021.html

It's a Altera cyclone IV with 16 Mbit of serial flash (M25P16/EPSC16) to 
store the configuration file.

Next to that, I have a USB Blaster.



Now, I am able to create a "blinky" test design and program the device 
using the "jtag" programming mode, but -of course- in this senario the 
configuration is lost after a reset or power-cycle.


Can somebody explain how exactly to program this device so that the 
configuration is stored inthe serial flash device?


Sofar, I found that
- in the programmer, you can add a flash-device to the fpga chip
- there are things called "secundary programing files" and there is an 
option "convert programming files" under the "files"-menu.

But, for the rest, the more I read quarus help website, the less I 
understand this all. The number of files and options there exists only 
seams to go up and -as we say in dutch- it's become very hard to see the 
forest through the trees. :-(


Can somebody give a little more information what exactly I need for 
this? Exactly what file do I need to create?


Any help is welcome!



Cheerio! Kr. Bonne

kristoff <kristoff@skypro.be> writes:

> Can somebody give a little more information what exactly I need for
> this? Exactly what file do I need to create?

From memory (since I haven't done this in a while) you need a .jic file
and you create that from your .sof file in the "convert programming
files" dialog. You need to specify the flash type as well and as I
recall, the UI isn't very intuitive. I think I have a script somewhere
which does it on the command line, easier to share on Usenet...

On 05/07/2016 23:03, kristoff wrote:
> Hi all,
>
>
> To learn VHDL and FPGAs, I bought a number of boards, one of them being
> this one:
> http://www.aliexpress.com/item/EP4CE10-altera-fpga-board-fpga-development-board-fpga-altera-board-fpga-development-board/32637947021.html
>
>
> It's a Altera cyclone IV with 16 Mbit of serial flash (M25P16/EPSC16) to
> store the configuration file.
>
> Next to that, I have a USB Blaster.
>
>
>
> Now, I am able to create a "blinky" test design and program the device
> using the "jtag" programming mode, but -of course- in this senario the
> configuration is lost after a reset or power-cycle.
>
>
> Can somebody explain how exactly to program this device so that the
> configuration is stored inthe serial flash device?
>
>
> Sofar, I found that
> - in the programmer, you can add a flash-device to the fpga chip
> - there are things called "secundary programing files" and there is an
> option "convert programming files" under the "files"-menu.
>
> But, for the rest, the more I read quarus help website, the less I
> understand this all. The number of files and options there exists only
> seams to go up and -as we say in dutch- it's become very hard to see the
> forest through the trees. :-(
>
>
> Can somebody give a little more information what exactly I need for
> this? Exactly what file do I need to create?
>
>
> Any help is welcome!
>
>
>
> Cheerio! Kr. Bonne
>

You need to attach a serial flash loader to your design, this interfaces 
the jtag socket to your flash device. In the serial flash loader 
megawizard do not tick Share ASMI interface or Use enhanced mode SFL 
boxes. Connect the noe_in pin on the instatiated loader to vcc (this 
should be the only pin.

To program the device you need to generate a *.jlc file using the 
quartus file convertor.

Hope that helps

Andy

Andy, Anssi,





On 06-07-16 10:08, Andy Bennet wrote:
>> Can somebody explain how exactly to program this device so that the
>> configuration is stored inthe serial flash device?
(...)
> You need to attach a serial flash loader to your design, this interfaces
> the jtag socket to your flash device. In the serial flash loader
> megawizard do not tick Share ASMI interface or Use enhanced mode SFL
> boxes. Connect the noe_in pin on the instatiated loader to vcc (this
> should be the only pin.
> To program the device you need to generate a *.jlc file using the
> quartus file convertor.


Both thanks for replying.  It really helps to know at least what file 
you need to create :-)


to sum it all up (for the archive of this NG, if somebody else might 
have the same issue).

I managed to do it like this:
- synthesis the VHDL design -> this creates a .sof file in the 
"output_files" directory

- file -> convert programming files
programming-type = .jic
configuration-device = (in my case) epcs16
input-files:
	flash-loader -> click on "add device" -> select your fpga (in my case) 
ep4ce10
	sof data -> click on "add file" -> select your .sof file
click on "generate" and then "close"

- go to the programmer:
choice "add file" -> select the .jic file

Then program as normal.


Pff!

(I think I'll just program it in memory. That is a lot faster!).



> Hope that helps
It sure did. Thanks!



> Andy
Cheerio! Kr. Bonne.

On Tuesday, July 5, 2016 at 11:03:08 PM UTC+1, kristoff wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> 
> To learn VHDL and FPGAs, I bought a number of boards, one of them being 
> this one: 
> http://www.aliexpress.com/item/EP4CE10-altera-fpga-board-fpga-development-board-fpga-altera-board-fpga-development-board/32637947021.html
> 
> It's a Altera cyclone IV with 16 Mbit of serial flash (M25P16/EPSC16) to 
> store the configuration file.
> 
> Next to that, I have a USB Blaster.
> 
> 
> 
> Now, I am able to create a "blinky" test design and program the device 
> using the "jtag" programming mode, but -of course- in this senario the 
> configuration is lost after a reset or power-cycle.
> 
> 
> Can somebody explain how exactly to program this device so that the 
> configuration is stored inthe serial flash device?
> 
> 
> Sofar, I found that
> - in the programmer, you can add a flash-device to the fpga chip
> - there are things called "secundary programing files" and there is an 
> option "convert programming files" under the "files"-menu.
> 
> But, for the rest, the more I read quarus help website, the less I 
> understand this all. The number of files and options there exists only 
> seams to go up and -as we say in dutch- it's become very hard to see the 
> forest through the trees. :-(
> 
> 
> Can somebody give a little more information what exactly I need for 
> this? Exactly what file do I need to create?
> 
> 
> Any help is welcome!


Perhaps this application note will answer your question:

https://www.altera.com/content/dam/altera-www/global/en_US/pdfs/literature/an/an370.pdf

-- 
Andy McC