NIOS II don't boot up after reset

[OKris1]

Hi. I have a Cyclone III FPGA Starter Board bought back in 2010. I have started on some NIOS II applications to leanr the C code firmware part of the FPGA.

I have downloaded niosii-ethenernet standarrd-3c25 from INTEL and programmed the SOF file. it works fine.

I have in the NIOS II EDS made a new NIOS II application and BSP from template and used the SOPCINFO file to make the BSP. it works fine

I have made my first NIOS II application code, read/writes to FLASH, read/writes to RAM, controls LEDs, programmed it via the RUN AS -> NIOS II HARDWARE and tested it via the NIOS II CONSOLE window in NIOS II EDS. I t works fine.

But when I press the reset button on the PCBA board, it does not start up . I need to reprogram the board by programming it via the RUN AS -> NIOS II HARDWARE to get thwe application back on. Why?

[EricMunYew_C_Intel]

Hi, Oystein

The pin info and assignments are listed in your .qsf.

You may verify the reset pin if it is assigned according to your Cyclone III FPGA pinouts.

For example,

set_instance_assignment -name IO_STANDARD "3.3-V LVTTL" -to GPIO[0]

set_location_assignment PIN_V10 -to GPIO[0]

Thanks.

Best regards

Eric

[OKris1]

Hi. I think the hardware pinout is correct set up. The board is a FPGA development board from ALTERA 10 years back.

I think it has something to do with that my design doesn't have a functional boot loader. I program the .sof and .elf files directly with my USB blaster JTAG cablea.

I think i need to make a .pof file and program it, but not exactly sure if this is the case and how to do it

BR

Øystein

[EricMunYew_C_Intel]

Hi, Oystein

Do you mean your Nios II didn't boot from external flash after your programmed both .elf and .sof to external flash ?

Thanks.

Eric

[EricMunYew_C_Intel]

Hi, Oystein

When you reset and your Nios is not booting up, may I know if this happened when you programmed .sof and .elf ?

Alternatively, please make sure your reset pin in the .qsf file is assigned properly so that your reset pin works. I sent to you before about the format of pin assignment in .qsf.

Thanks.

Eric

[EricMunYew_C_Intel]

Hi, Oystein

Has your problem resolved ?

May I know which Quartus version and OS you are running ?

Thanks.

Eric

[EricMunYew_C_Intel]

Hi, Oystein

May I know which flash controller you used and how you generated the .hex ?

Eric

[EricMunYew_C_Intel]

Hi, Oystein

You can refer to below page 219 - 350 for Nios boot (from external flash) method.

https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/programmable/us/en/pdfs/literature/hb/nios2/edh_ed_handbook.pdf

For Cyclone III, you can use Quartus 15.

In the above link, you can follow the method to generate .hex (with boot copier) for your flash using mem_init_generate. Your reset vector and exception vector are pointing to external flash, and follow the correct method in BSP linker.

Thanks.

Eric

[EricMunYew_C_Intel]

Hi, Oystein

Can we close the case if you have no more question ?

Thanks.

Eric