Configuration Files

[Altera_Forum]

I recently inherited a design that uses a custom VHDL module on a MAXII to read a configuration from from flash, and program a Cyclone II. 

 Before it loads the image, it reads a timestamp and an image size out of the image-area in memory.  Are there any binary formats that would contain this information, or do you think whoever designed this was using a script or something to generate their own programming files?

[Altera_Forum]

You may have a look at: 

 http://www.altera.com/support/examples/tcl/tcl-date-time-stamp.html  I hope it helps.

[Altera_Forum]

I don't expect generating a timestamp to be much of a problem. I'm more worried about inserting it into a binary image. I realize I could just create a script to make my own custom binary with a header that contains some information like the length of the image and a timestamp, but I'd like to know if something like that already exists. 

 Maybe the .pof already contains this information. I don't know much about the file format. Is there a good description of it anywhere?

[Altera_Forum]

NIOS 2 boot images have a timestamp in them. Reference this document for more information. 

 http://www.altera.com/literature/an/an458.pdf?gsa_pos=3&wt.oss_r=1&wt.oss=nios%20boot%20loader  Jake