How to program .rpd file to a flash chip through 3rd party flash programmer

[zewen]

We're exploring the way to offline program the spi flash for FPG configuration by 3rd party programmer, and we believe the .rpd format image is the correct file to be programmed to the flash as per Customizable Flash Programmer User Guide.  We have generated the .rpd file according to the guide, while the file size is smaller than the flash (MT25QU01GBBB8E12) capacity (41.8M vs 128M). We want to understand if we need to initiate the flash first, which address the load begins at, ends at, and the unprogrammed addresses should be all 0s or all F’s. And do we need todo a bit-reversal for each byte when using the 3rd party programmer?

By the way, I notice there is a tcl script (customizable_programmer.tc) included in the design reference that user can use to load the rpd to flash through system console, but unfortunately, the link to the design reference is not valid anymore.
https://fpgacloud.intel.com/devstore/platform/18.0.0/Standard/customizable-flash-programmer-for-arria-10/

Thank you,
Zewen

Case Information

[NurAiman_M_Intel]

Hi Zewen,

The link might be broken due to migration. Kindly refer to below link for design example;

https://fpgacloud.intel.com/devstore/platform/18.0.0/Standard/customizable-flash-programmer/

or you can search in the design store as well;

https://fpgacloud.intel.com/devstore/

Regards,

Aiman

[zewen]

Thank you Aiman!

I downloaded the script(customizable_programmer.tcl) and took a look, it seems that the rpd file is read by avmm master with no offset by default, and unused bits are filled up by all Fs. Does that mean when we use a thrid party programmer, we load the binary at zero offset, and for all the unprogrammed bits we should fill them up with all Fs?

And do we need todo a bit-reversal for each byte (big endian or small endian when we load binary to the spi flash)?

Regards,

Zewen

[NurAiman_M_Intel]

Hi,

Does that mean when we use a thrid party programmer, we load the binary at zero offset, and for all the unprogrammed bits we should fill them up with all Fs? - Yes

do we need todo a bit-reversal for each byte (big endian or small endian when we load binary to the spi flash)? - Little endian

Regards,

Aiman

[NurAiman_M_Intel]

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