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LFrin's avatar
LFrin
Icon for Occasional Contributor rankOccasional Contributor
3 years ago
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Arria 10: Booting U-Boot from SD-Card does not configure FPGA

Hello, I have adapted the example for the Arria 10 SOCDK (Arria 10 SoC - Boot from SD Card) to the HAN-Pilot-Platform evaluation board from Terasic. I used the make_sdimage_p3.py script to generat...
  • LFrin's avatar
    LFrin
    3 years ago

    Hi @aikeu,

    okay, now im sure: The Intel In-System Sources and Probes IP hinders the FPGA from starting normally after it has been correctly configured by SD-Card. Even the old Quartus-Project works without the ISSP-IP. Now it makes sense why the FPGA starts when a connection to the programmer is established via JTAG or similar.

    My workaround will be, that i only use FPGA Firmware without the debugging features (ISSP, SignalTap, ...) on the SD-Card and when i need this debugging features i will start the HPS with the ARMD DS debugger.

    Thanks for the help, my problem has been solved.

    Regards,

    LFrin

LFrin's avatar
LFrin
Icon for Occasional Contributor rankOccasional Contributor
3 years ago

Hi @aikeu,

The SW5 (MSEL) Dipswitch is switched to 000 - FPP Mode - FPGA boot from Micro SD Card. I can boot the sample SD-Card-Image provided by Terasic and the FPGA is configured.

Unfortunately the configuration of the FPGA does not work when I use this and this guide to create U-Boot device settings (suitable for HAN-Pilot-Platform) myself to create an SD card image.

The Secondary Program Loader (SPL) and U-Boot are booting without any problems, the DDR memory is calibrated and I get into the U-Boot console. The only thing that does not work is the configuration of the FPGA.

Is it possible that by using the ARM-Development-Studio-Debugger, the .itb file, where the FPGA firmware is stored on the SD card, is loaded differently? I find it extremely strange that it works when I start the boot process using the debugger.

Is there another way to debug the programming process of the FPGA?

Are there any special requirements for the HPS2FPGA bridge if you want to configure the FPGA via the HPS?

  • LFrin's avatar
    LFrin
    Icon for Occasional Contributor rankOccasional Contributor
    3 years ago

    The problem also exists when I work without "HPS early release of HPS IO". I convert the *.rbf file with the attached script and create my SD-Card as usual. The process hangs at "FPGA: Start to program peripheral/full bitstream ...".

    I also found that it is enough to connect the ARM DS debugger, stop the ARM and reset it so that the FPGA is configured correctly.

    The ARM loads from the SD-Card: SPL and U-Boot load correctly, FPGA is not configured. I connect to the ARM DS debugger and run the following script:

    # initialize system
    stop
    wait 5s
    reset
    stop
    wait 5s

    FPGA is configured correctly.