Forum Discussion
Occasional ContributorCyclone VGT Dev Kit boards - some new boards failing to boot from NOR Flash
We've been using these boards for years, having certified them for use in one of our products.
In the last few months we have now received 5 of these boards and they fail to configure from NOR flash. These are all the new Rev B CVGT Dev Kit edition.
Not all of the new RevB fail, but the fail rate is high, getting close to 50%. Yes, we know they changed to a Micron NOR flash for Rev B and rerouted some data lines, we are using the new RevB MAX5 files and have updated the Cyclone V NOR flash pins to match as well.
I made some diagnostic changes to the MAX5 boot source (I set the PGM leds to count retries) and discovered that on the bad boards, the boot process goes through multiple configuration retries and eventually the watchdog timer fires, turns on the ERR (D5) red LED and stops.
With the factory image they come with, there are also dozens of retries, then sometimes the boards fail, sometimes they boot up.
With the slow speed that the NOR flash configuration runs at, there is no reason that it should ever fail and retry, and indeed on good boards they configure the first time every time with no retries.
The first four we were able to send back to Altera (Via digikey where we bought them).
We just got another bad one yesterday, this one from Mouser.
Has anyone else seen this issue, and/or heard from Altera about this?
Board link:
25 Replies
GordWaitI can upload the timing report from my compilation of the factory Max5 build. Since it creates a pof file with the same checksum as the pof file found in the v22 CVGT release, I can only assume it has the same timing.
My understanding is that the Altera factory checksum values are:
Factory Binary Checksum 008D0C68 User Code 008D0C49
My build with the timing report below matches these checksums.
Here it is, attached.
Again, some of the boards we have received do not boot up with this factory build.
If you can get the actual compilation folder from the Altera engineering team who build the official v22 release, you can compare them.I renamed it to .txt, it seemed like this forum would not let me upload the .rpt named original.
- GordWait
Just to be clear, we have two boards that fail to boot with our "timing improved" modified copy of the Altera factory bootloader, and the same two also fail to boot with my new "very simple and slow" bootloader (it runs at 25 Mhz configuration clock, does not use the Altera PFL core, just a simple state machine).
Given that, we need an RMA for these boards.
Normally we get the RMA from our sales channel (Digikey and Mouser) but the newest failing board came from Terasic, who have instructed us to ask you here for an RMA. Is this truly the correct procedure for Terasic?
If so, please send me an email address so we can take this RMA discussion private?
FakhrulA_alteraRegular Contributor
Hi GordWait,
I will reach out to you separately via email so we can discuss the RMA details offline and determine the appropriate RMA path.
Thanks,
Fakhrul
- GordWait
A question - what is involved in getting on Altera Premium Support? This issue has been dragging on for quite a while, causing us production delays etc..
