How to bring-up an Intel Cyclone 10 LP device

hermeli1977 · ‎07-20-2020

Hi there

I received our first prototype PCBs with an Intel Cyclone 10 LP device (10CL006YE144C8G) equipped.

Since a few days I'm trying to bring-up this FPGA device, but I was not successful and I need some additional input.

Here is what I've experienced/tried so far:

I'm having an active serial (AS) configuration with an externel flash. I'm monitoring the configuration signals (VCCIO, nCONFIG, nSTATUS, CONF_DONE, nCE, DCLK) with a logic analyzer. After applying the supply voltages, the only reaction I get from the FPGA is that nSTATUS goes HIGH right after POR and goes back LOW after ~450us.

According to the datasheets, I would expect nSTATUS to stay HIGH.

Does anyone have an idea what's going on here?

NurAiman_M_Intel · ‎08-12-2020

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Intel community.

For active serial configuration, you will need to generate JIC programming file instead of POF programming file. Try:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/programmable/documentation/mwh1410805299012.html#mwh14108052

Also, have you refer to device design guidelines:

https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/programmable/us/en/pdfs/literature/an/an800.pdf

Pin connection guideline:

https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/programmable/us/en/pdfs/literature/dp/cyclone-10/pcg-01021.pdf

Let me know your feedback.

Thanks.

Regards,

Aiman

hermeli1977 · ‎08-12-2020

Hi Aiman

Thanks for your pointers and suggestions.

I had a hard time figuring out our problem with that FPGA, but I finally did it:

We did not have the thermal pad connected to GND in the design. Because of this, the JTAG programming and Active Serial programming did not work.

Another problem we encountered was that when programming the external flash chip from an MCU, we have to bit-flip each byte in the programming file before writing.

Cheers, Stefan

NurAiman_M_Intel · ‎08-13-2020

Hi Stefan,

Glad to know your problem has been solved. For 2nd problem, is it affecting your programming? What programming scheme are you using?

Thanks.

Regards,

Aiman

NurAiman_M_Intel · ‎08-13-2020

Hi Stefan,

I assume you are using rpd? During rpd generation, you will need to select little endian format as you are having Active Serial for your configuration.

Thanks.

Regards,

Aiman

hermeli1977 · ‎08-14-2020

Yes, we are using RPD and Active Serial.

We just did not know that little-endian is the right format when programming the flash from the external MCU.

But now, everything is clear and running.