Programming a custom board without flash memory

Altera_Forum · ‎09-11-2009

I have a custom board (Stratix-II with an EP2S90F1020C3). Right now the functionallity is only described in HDL and it's working fine. However, the board does NOT have any flash memory.

Now I wanted to add a NIOS to the system to add some software parts. For testing I created a complete new system in SOPC builder with only a NIOS (connected to the clock, reset and some LEDs) and downloaded the *.sof using Quartus Programmer.

If I try to run the project as NIOS II hardware from NIOS IDE, I get the following error:

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

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There are no Nios II CPUs with debug modules available which match the values specified. Please check that your PLD is correctly configured, downloading a new SOF file if necessary.[/b]

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I have some experience with development boards, using the Flash Programmer ... however I dont know how to programm the system without flash memory ;-)

So thanks in advance for some advice ;-)

Altera_Forum · ‎09-16-2009

Sounds like your FPGA is not properly configured at all. In Nios EDS, when you have the download cable connected to FPGA JTAG, does it recognize the cable at all? (Try to open Flash Programmer and it'll try to detect the JTAG connection.) This will tell you whether the JTAG debugger is alive at all and therefore, NiosII core is alive.

If you board doesn't have config Flash, then one way to config the board in debug environment is via JTAG. Otherwise, you can config the FPGA via passive configuration on power up from an external controller.

Altera_Forum · ‎09-22-2009

since NIOS forum has been moved, the thread exists twice ;-)

http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12680

the actual problem was another one though, thanks for your help anyway !