EPCS booting problem

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

 I recently upgraded to 9.1 (today) for both Quartus and NIOS II EDS. Ever since then, whenever I try to program the EPCS, it states that it was successful, but when I power cycle, it never boots up. I scope the data/clk lines on the EPCS flash chip and they are actively cycling as if it's continously trying to boot, but never does. My code/config file hasn't changed.    I've tried rebooting my machine, using a different USB blaster, re-installing drivers, nothing works. If I load the SOF file and load the debug, I can run it from the EDS.  Anyone else experience something similar?   Thanks,  Mike

[Altera_Forum]

When you try to program it a second time, does it verify the contents to be the same? 

 Jake

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

I had similar with my card - recompiling the same project under v9.1 generated a pof which programms but the CycloneII did not start. Pof of unchanged project compiled with v9.0 operated. I deactivated the "generate compressed bitstream" option and this pof worked... Perhaps you could try same on your system?  CU, CS

[Altera_Forum]

Same problem here, epcs flash programming with 9.0 produces a bootable board, but with 9.1 the board won't boot. 

 Turning off "generate compressed bitstream" option didn't work for me. I'm using Cyclone II.   The SOF file itseld seems to be working fine, since programming it directly to FPGA makes it operating correctly.  I've noticed that using sof2flash routine from 9.1 produces different flash-file than sof2flash from 9.0 using the same SOF file as input for both.   The difference is within the first 64 bytes of the .flash file, so that's probably the cause of non-bootable EPCS.   I've reported this to Altera but haven't got a solution or confirm about this bug yet.   Regards, Jari

[Altera_Forum]

Hey, 

 Same problem here since I installed Quartus 9.1. My Cyclone II did not enter user mode. Deactivating the compression seemingly solved the problem.

[Altera_Forum]

Same issue noticed for me, too. I must use compression because of limited space in EPCS.  

 NStatus is low after finish configuration although CONF_DONE is high. This happens to Cyclone EP1C12 and EP1C6 devices.   Expect a quick fix from Altera.

[Altera_Forum]

Got a reply from Altera: 

 "A fix has already been made and so it should be included in the next release"   So if this fix is not made public soon, I guess it's included in the SP1 sometime in January/February timeframe?   In the meantime I guess we must just stay away from 9.1 and continue using 9.0 ...

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  Same issue noticed for me, too. I must use compression because of limited space in EPCS.   NStatus is low after finish configuration although CONF_DONE is high. This happens to Cyclone EP1C12 and EP1C6 devices.   Expect a quick fix from Altera.  --- Quote End ---    Hi, while I did not need to use compression in my system, I decided to go with 9.1 and not to generate compressed bitstreams as I did with 9.0. Nevertheless I was in touch with ALTERA and got a hint to use the "Convert Programming Files" option (located in "File") to generate the POF. You have to "Disable AS/AP mode CONF_DONE pin error check" in "Advanced" (you have to add file (SOF) first and to check Compression under Properties) to ogenerate a compressed POF. This worked for me, resulting in a compressed POF with FPGA configuring of. But this adds work to get the POF which might not be worth to be able to use the 9.1....  Sincerely, CS

[Altera_Forum]

How to fix it if I need to use Flash Programmer in NIOS II IDE to program the EPCS? The NIOS II processor is booting from EPCS.

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  How to fix it if I need to use Flash Programmer in NIOS II IDE to program the EPCS? The NIOS II processor is booting from EPCS.  --- Quote End ---     There's no fix that I'm aware of.   Either you just wait until Altera fixes this or you switch back to 9.0 version.

[Altera_Forum]

Is quartus_9.1_fat32.exe fixed this bug?

[Altera_Forum]

Well, I have figured out a workaround to boot from EPCS while waiting for Altera to come out with a fix for 9.1. But this workaround is very manual. 

 First, generate two sets of compressed POF file from Convert Programming Files utility. One with "Disable AS/AP mode CONF_DONE pin error check" option checked, and another one unchecked. Let's named them working.pof for the pof file with "Disable AS/AP mode CONF_DONE pin error check" option checked and not_working.pof for the other one.   Convert both pof files to RPD files using Convert Programming Files utility tool. Use same file names, which are working.rpd and not_working.rpd. Use binary comparator tool to compare both files. You can notice that there are only 3 bits difference for the first 3 bytes.  Now, you can use the NIOS II flash programmer to program the SOF file and ELF file into the EPCS like usual. After finish programming, bear in mind that at the very top of your EPCS now is actually similar like not_working.rpd. You just have figure out a way to change it to working.rpd. That's a lot of way to do this, such as using alt_write_flash() in your firmware code. My applications already allow me to write and read from the EPCS freely.  Hope this helps! :)

[Altera_Forum]

this seems to get even more worse if you do not modify the fpga image, meaning you leave the image as it is created by quartus before 9.1 and only want to update the epcs images due to application software update. 

normaly this is just a batch job that stores the application after the fpga image in epcs device. even this does not work with quartus 9.1  all epcs files produced by quartus 9.1 here are completly useless  so we keep at least one quartus 9.0 installation to generate the epcs files for jtag or in application programming.  hopefully Altera will release a fix very soon.

[Altera_Forum]

Hi,  

Any news about EPCS booting problem. I move from quartus 9.0 to 9.1 because I want to use the free NIOS. I use a custom board wich only have a JTAG connection and I program my EPCS using the flash programmer in NIOS EDS. thanks

[Altera_Forum]

unfortunately no,  

the case i have opened with MySupport is still open and no information about a fix or a service pack.  So currently it is impossible to generate EPCS programming files with Quartus 9.1 Thats the reason why we have one workstation with quartus 9.0 left untouched, so there we can run scripts that generate the epcs files out of quartus 9.1 designs  There was a thread here where somebody posted a possible solution be copying some files from quartus 9.0 installation.  so we still have to wait for 9.1 sp1 or does anybody else have any other (better) information about this issue ?

[Altera_Forum]

As a result of my service request (filed in November 2009) Altera just sent me a Quartus patch file for testing which fixes the problem. So now the flashing of EPCS seems to work. 

 Here are the details so that you can request the patch from Altera or your FAE:   Quartus II 9.1 Patch 0.63 Patch SPR#: 330296   Regards, Jari

[Altera_Forum]

Correct, that patch seems to solve this issue. 

just received it from MySuport and it works here too

[Altera_Forum]

Hi Jari, 

 Thank you for posting the details. I have had an SR in for 2 months. It took 1 month to identify the problem actually exists and that I'm not crazy and one month to not respond at all to the problem. I'm glad that somebody else got through to them to get a fix for this issue.   I had to call in and actually give them the patch number before they could find it.:confused: Once they found it I had it within 10 min.   Dan

[Altera_Forum]

I resolved my problem too with the patch. I'm using EPCS + Arria II Gx + Quartus 9.1.

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  As a result of my service request (filed in November 2009) Altera just sent me a Quartus patch file for testing which fixes the problem. So now the flashing of EPCS seems to work.   Here are the details so that you can request the patch from Altera or your FAE:   Quartus II 9.1 Patch 0.63 Patch SPR#: 330296   Regards, Jari  --- Quote End ---       I' a student in China, using Cyclone II. I encountered the similar problem with Nios II 91 Flash Programmer.I wonder whether it is convenient to post me one copy of this patch you talked.   Best Wishes, Yuphone Chang

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  I' a student in China, using Cyclone II. I encountered the similar problem with Nios II 91 Flash Programmer.I wonder whether it is convenient to post me one copy of this patch you talked.   Best Wishes, Yuphone Chang  --- Quote End ---     Altera has already published the 9.1 SP1 (for both Quartus and NIOS) which contain this patch and thus fixes the EPCS problem.   You can download it from the Altera's website.   Best Regards, Jari