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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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16 years ago

DDR3 on the Stratix III memory board

Hello

I am new to Stratix III. I been trying to create a simple DDR3 Altmemphy test program for the Altera Stratix III memory board. Using the AN436 example as a guide I have a program compiled, but on this board, I can't download the sof file in to the FPGA. I know this board is working because the software the came with the board still was able to test the Micron DDR3 module. Does anyone have any experiance with this board?

Please contact me at: 805-446-5175 or email me at victor.cai@gmail.com

Thank You

5 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    16 years ago

    Sorry for not being clear.

    The S3 memory board has two jtag connector. One for the Stratix III and another for the Max II. I can connect my byte blaster II to the JTAG port of the Max II and I could detect the MaxII and program it. But when I connect it to Stratix III, I don't see S3 on the Jtag chain. I have to run the Altera S3 memory board software which load NIOS on the the chip before I see the Stratix III on the JTAG chain. But at this point, when I try to use my byte blaster II to program the device, I get halfway there then I get an error:

    Error: Can't access JTAG chain

    Error: Can't configure device. Expected JTAG ID code 0x021020DD for device 1, but found JTAG ID code 0xFFFFFFFF.

    I don't see how the JTAG would be turned off since there is only one device on the chain.

    Thank you for helping.

    Victor
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    16 years ago

    Yeah that's odd. You don't happen to have access to a USB-Blaster do you?

    Jake
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    16 years ago

    I am getting one sometime today. I hope that will solve the problem but I am not sure why USB blaster would be different than byte blaster II. They both should be base on JTAG protocol.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    16 years ago

    Well I don't know exactly what is going on but these are my first suspicions:

    1 - A damaged board.

    2 - A defective or degraded Byte Blaster

    3 - Borderline JTAG timing between the Byte Blaster and S3 board. Maybe they just never tested the two together.

    If the USB-Blaster doesn't fix it then I would seriously consider that the board has some problem or I would start to call into question the design of the JTAG on the board.

    One thing you can try doing is probing the JTAG data lines with a scope and make sure they look correct. In fact sometimes just adding some capacitance to the signals (like a scope probe) can make things start working.

    Jake