Nios Development Kit Cyclone Editions Last Update: January 2, 2004 ==================================================================== This file contains information regarding U-Boot and the Altera Nios Development Kit, Cyclone Edition (DK-1C20). For general Nios information see doc/README.nios. For those interested in contributing ... see HELP WANTED section in doc/README.nios. Contents: 1. Files 2. Memory Organization 3. Examples 4. Programming U-Boot into FLASH with GERMS 5. Active Serial Memory Interface (ASMI) Support ==================================================================== 1. Files ========= board/altera/dk1c20/* include/configs/DK1C20.h 2. Memory Organization ======================= -The heap is placed below the monitor (U-Boot code). -Global data is placed below the heap. -The stack is placed below global data (&grows down). 3. Examples ============ The hello_world example works fine. The default load address is 0x0100_0000 (the start of SDRAM). 4. Programming U-Boot into FLASH with GERMS ============================================ The current version of the DK-1C20 port with the default configuration settings occupies about 81 KBytes of flash. A minimal configuration occupies less than 60 KByte (asmi and network support disabled). To program U-Boot into the DK-1C20 flash using GERMS do the following: 1. From the command line, download U-Boot using the nios-run: $ nios-run -r u-boot.srec This takes about 45 seconds (GERMS is not very speedy here). After u-boot is downloaded it will be executed. You should see the following: U-Boot 1.0.0-pre (Oct 4 2003 - 07:39:24) CPU: Nios-32 Rev. 3.3 (0x3038) Reg file size: 256 LO_LIMIT/HI_LIMIT: 2/14 Board: Altera Nios 1C20 Development Kit In: serial Out: serial Err: serial ==> 2. Quit nios-run and start your terminal application (e.g. start Hyperterminal or minicom). 3. Download the u-boot code to RAM. When using Hyperterminal, do the following: a. From the u-boot command prompt start a binary download to SRAM: ==> loadb 800000 b. Download u-boot.bin using kermit. 4. From the U-Boot command prompt, erase flash 0x40000 to 0x5ffff: ==> erase 1:4-5 5. Copy the binary image from SRAM to flash: ==> cp.b 800000 40000 10000 U-Boot will now automatically start when the board is powered on or reset using the Standard-32 configuration. To start U-Boot with the Safe-32 configuration, enter the following GERMS command: + g 40000 5. Active Serial Memory Interface (ASMI) Support ================================================ ASMI is fully supported in U-Boot. Please note that ASMI is supported only on Cyclone devices. Do not expect ASMI to work with Stratix or APEX devices. ************* IMPORTANT ************* =================================================== IN ORDER FOR THE NIOS ASMI TO OPERATE PROPERLY, THE CYCLONE DEVICE MUST BE CONFIGURED USING JTAG OR ASMI. There are two techniques you can use to bootstrap the ASMI. The first is to use the program_epcs utility that is part of Altera's SDK. But I've found program_epcs to be slow and cumbersome at best. An undocumented alternative is to use the Quartus device programing interface: 1. Select "Active Serial" mode. 2. Choose the xxx.pof file. For example, for the standard_32 configuration use the "standard_32.pof" file. 3. Attach your ByteBlaster to J28. Make sure you have the cable attached properly -- the orientation of J28 is different than J24 (the JTAG header). On J28, pin 1 is on the bottom row, left-most pin. 4. Press and hold the "Power-On Reset" switch (SW10). You will see the green "Loading" and red "Error" LEDs (LED3 and LED4) in the on state. 5. While holding down the "Power-On Reset" switch, start the programming sequence. This only takes about 10 seconds. 6. After programming is complete, release the "Power-On Reset" switch. The Cyclone device should now load its configuration from the EPCS4 (U59). The green "User" LED (LED 1) should be blinking if the device was successfully loaded via ASMI. 7. Remove the ByteBlaster cable. The cable must be removed to allow the Nios ASMI access to the EPCS4 device. After you have successfully programmed a configuration into the EPCS4, the ASMI will be used to load the Cyclone configuration unless the "Force Safe" switch (SW9) is pressed. NOTE: To maximize the amount of space available for program use, you can enable configuration compression in Quartus. With compression enabled, the size of the standard_32 configuration data is approximately 192 KBytes. To use the U-Boot ASMI commands, try typing "help asmi" at the command prompt. The command "asmi info" will show the current status of the ASMI.