Open IP Core SOF download question

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

 I am a newbie working on a project with the NIOS 2 /f soft core processor using the (Open Core Plus) Quartus II Web base 12.1 edition and the Nios II Embedded Evaluation Kit, Cyclone III edition. Since I am using the Open Core, my USB-Blaster needs to be connected to the kit and the time limit warning dialog box needs to be remain open, when I try to NIOS2-Configure-sof the SOF in the console or using the Quartus Programmer to configure the FPGA. My problem is I can't do nios2-download with my software zImage if the USB port remains open. Is there a way I can download my zImage while my SOF is running?  thanks in advance for any help,  -Yeung

[Altera_Forum]

Could you clarify "I can't do nios2-download with my software zImage if the USB port remains open." ? I never had any problems using nios2-download while the opencore evalutation window was open.

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

 I first use the Quartus II programmer to configure the sof on to the FPGA, and a dialog box with title "OpenCore Plus Status" appear "Time remaining: unlimited". I left it open. Afterward, I use the console to program the flash, "nios2-download -g zImage.initramfs.gz" Here is the error message I got: Using cable "USB-Blaster [USB-0], device 1, instance 0x00 Pausing target processor: not responding. Resetting and trying again: FAILED Leaving target processor paused  I tried with nios2-flash-programmer --base=0x00000000 --erase-all. Same error message.  Thanks in advance if you any idea what I did wrong. Please let me know if you need more info.  Thanks,  Yeung

[Altera_Forum]

The tools are designed so that the opencore window can talk to its hardware at the same time as other tools such as SignalTap and nios2-download talk to theirs. 

 My guess is that there is something wrong with your system. The four most likely problems are: 

1. Did not meet timing analysis 
2. Clocks not running 
3. Resets stuck (asserted or deasserted) 
4. A slave connected to the processor is broken 

[Altera_Forum]

Thanks for your respond. After you told me to verify timing and connection, I have been checking my design inside out. I have a stupid question and believe this is the source of the problem if anyone could kindly help me out.  

 As a beginner, I would like to learn the NIOSII from bottom up. Therefore, I started the QSYS design from scratch and following the same design in the Application Selector tutorial. I am using the Quartus II 12.1 web edition with development kit - NEEK. I believe my source of the problem is the SDRAM PSC A2S56D40CTP-G5 isn't configure correctly. I would think it will work if I take the (DDR2 SDRAM controller with ALTMEMPHY) - memory present from the Applicatin Selector tutorial which I saved it as the PSC A2S56D40CTP-G5.xml file and then load it into my new design present. Nonetheless, I got this error message:  The value (0.0) of the parameter 'mem_trrd_ns' is out of range. Valid values for this parameter are between 5.5 and 106.0  So, I went in to edit it, and then I got a dialog box error message: The memory type of 'PSC A2S56D40CTP-G5.xml' is not compatible with this wizard  I was able to take the other memory present (Micron MT47H32M16-3E) and customized it to look alike the tutorial show. However, there were some additional parameters are different.  -Four active window time (tFAW) -Read to precharge time(tRTP) -Maximum memory frequency for CAS latency 3.0/4.0/5.0/6.0 while the tutorial parameter only have 2.0/2.5/3.0 By adding 2.0/2.5 into the memory present file, I got this error message Parameter 'mem_tcl_20_fmax' is an unknown parameter. Parameter 'mem_tcl_25_fmax' is an unknown parameter.  I believe the DDR2 configuration with the QSYS is incorrect which causing many other issues. How come the Application Selector tutorial didn't get all these error msg? it was build by SOPC builder and converted into QSYS.. Maybe that's why?  I greatly appreciated if you anyone could help me. This problem is getting onto my nerve..haha  -Yeung