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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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15 years ago

Commodity configuration flash

I've read many threads about using commodity flash devices for Cyclone III configuration and it seems it is possible to use certain devices from Spansion and Atmel instead of EPCS-series in AS mode.

However, what I have not found is if it is possible to update the contents of such flash from a microcontroller. In my system I have a separate micro for other things and SPI bus that can read/write an image to the flash direct from PC via the micro (as in a customer update). I would hold nConfig low and update the image, release nConfig and FPGA would reconfigure itself with the new code.

While this is straightforward to implement, I'm wondering if it ends up working.. The specific concern I have is if any of the file formats are correct in directly burning on the flash..i.e. if byte orders / word orders are correct? I'm not sure what the Quartus programmer actually ends up doing to these burn-files.

Has anyone experience in this or pointers how to best go about it.

2 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    I've used Altera EPCS4, Numonyx M25P40 and Spansion S25FL040 for Cyclone III configuration and they all worked fine for me. They all have the EPCS4 instuction set in common, but Numonyx and Spansion have define some extra instruction. I wouldn't worry about differences in byte or word ordering. That's the same for all mentioned devices.

    So if you got it working with an EPCS4, it will work with the others too.

    Good luck, Ton
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    make sure you are using the rpd file format from quartus. it has the right bit order for serial flash devices.

    --dalon