Forum Discussion

Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
14 years ago

hostpc like send data to nios II via jtag (nios2-terminal.exe, jtag_atlantis.dll)

hi!

my system:

cyclone 3 starter kit

quartus 2 - 9.1 ( licence + nios licence)

nios 2 system working

goal:

i want to setup a matlab gui to switch some pio outputs of the nios. with it i want set the options of a dsp-builder-block. i also want to check some pio-inputs in my matlab gui and do something if bit 0 switches from 1 to 0 or something like that.

i think i can do this by sending chars by alt_getchar() (small c lib) with the nios2-terminal.

the problem is that when i start a *.m file and the nios2-terminal is waiting of my input, i have no ability to put in the char automatically via a programmed *.m file.

i am also open for other hardware suggestions.

Problem:

only a usb-blaster-connection to the board - want no other connection.

i am connected via the integrated usb blaster to the starter board.

i need a possibility to send just a few bit to the nios via the usb (jtag uart).

in my opinion - the nios 2 ide is also transfering data to the sopc -system by using nios2-terminal.exe.

i read the example" high speed image download demo " but could not understand how its done. i am just a beginner with nios and also not so well in programming/compiling to understand how to use the cygwin - environment. - ok i looked in the inet - is a linuxlike environment for windows.

i also thought about using the fdti-usb driver (set up a virtual serial connection - vcp or d2xx).

i have no idea if it is possible so easy (without programming a new driver or something like this)

what exactly can i do with nios2-terminal and how?

(the ' --help' makes no reason for me)

does anyone of you understand what i am talking about?

need real help!!!

greets

26 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    14 years ago

    Have you considered using SystemConsole to communicate with the board?

    You can put a JTAG to Avalon Master Bridge in the hardware and then use that to read and write registers as you desire.

    SystemConsole is launched from the Tools menu in SOPC builder.

    Once you have it working from SystemConsole there are ways to integrate that with Matlab (these will be easier in 11.0 if you can wait a month)
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    14 years ago

    thank you for this information!

    i also thought about using systemconsole. i also looked into the manual (Chapter 12: Analyzing and Debugging Designs with the System Console). But i didn´t find anything about reading and writing registers, and how to start the systemconsole just from an external program like the cmd from windows or from matlab. i also thought that the systemconsole is used do put addional digital system blocks in the fpga means reconfig the hardware or change the hardwareconfiguration.

    so at the moment it is "a little bit" working.

    i got it to run by using the matlab command

    system('c:/folders/nios2-terminal.exe --quit-after=SEC < textfile1.txt');

    but thats not a very good way, due to "--quit-after=SEC".

    its not very nice the of altera that there are so less examples and informations about nios2-termial.exe.

    perhaps anyone can tell me how to set and reset registers via systemconsole. i just wanna try a better way to read and write registers also without using nios2.

    i was just reading over 2 in this forum and the documentation of altera.

    i think that altera does not want me to use the programming jtag-uart connection for talking with my cyclone 3. others had the same problem.

    so i need help with the systemconsle to read an write registers. (also links to documentation or tutorials) cannot set it up or start it from windows command.

    perhaps there i also an other way to talk with my cyclone3 ?

    thanks you !
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    14 years ago

    To use SystemConsole you need to first put the appropriate hardware into your design. There is a QSYS/SOPC builder component called JTAG to Avalon Master Bridge which you need to connect (in QSYS or SOPCB) to the slave which contains your registers.

    Then program your board, start SystemConsole and type:get_service_paths master

    The systemconsole path to all the masters on your board should be displayed. At this point I normally do this:set m [lindex [get_service_paths master] n]

    Which sets the variable m to the name of the master you want to work with (if you have one master then n=0, otherwise use n to choose the appropriate master). Open that master with this command:set m1 [claim_service master $m myname ""]

    Then you can read and write to the master using the master_read_xx and master_write_xx commands against $m1.

    This is the systemconsole user guide (http://www.altera.com/literature/hb/qts/qts_qii53028.pdf) for 10.1.

    Once you have your slaves working standalone then you need to connect them to Matlab. In 11.0 there are a set of Java objects which are specially designed for this, I'm not sure if it is being properly documented.

    Since you're on 10.1 you'll need to unzip the attached file into your sopc_builder/model/lib directory. You can then use the Matlab Java access to create an com.altera.systemconsole.matlabapi.SystemConsoleLink object.

    This object can open masters using the masterOpen method, the master objects it returns have a masterRead32, masterWrite32 and close methods whose functionality should be obvious.

    The SystemConsoleLink in 11.0 will be able to execute TCL in the SystemConsole interpreter too, but dropping the 11.0 jar into 10.1 breaks that so please don't try it.

    Good Luck.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    14 years ago

    Hi,

    Your SOPCB system looks right, I might connect the JTAG master to the RAM as well (it would be useful for testing). SOPCB will tell you what can be connected to what - if there is no hollow dot then you can't connect it.

    The JTAG to Avalon Master Bridge contains all the pieces you need - all the components you mention are inside it.

    You can set the registers from Nios or from SystemConsole - with the PIO component whatever wrote last will win.

    You don't need to connect the JTAG master to the JTAG UART (in fact you should not as the JTAG UART slave will be confused if accessed by two masters).

    Regards
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    14 years ago

    Hi Wombat,

    I have a doubt. Does the board need to have a JTAG connector for using the system console in the way you specified?. Will the USB blaster be enough to have this functionality. I have a Terasic DE4 board with me which does not have a JTAG connector, but the USB blaster can be used in JTAG mode.

    I wanted to write some register through system console. So can i use the JTAG to Avalon Master Bridge as master to write to these register locations using master_write_32 command?. I am not using Nios II processor.

    Thanks in advance
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    14 years ago

    Yes you can use the JTAG bridge and the system console tools with your board and its embedded blaster, it's just like having a real USB blaster connected to the FPGA's JTAG pins.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    14 years ago

    hi wombat!

    me again.

    can you please repost the com.altera.systemconsole.matlabapi.zip? actually i am not able to download it.

    i´m also thinking about to talk to nios via a c programm. so i can use a mex-file in my matlab programm? do you have experience in this way or give me a hint?

    working

    actually i can read the memory - but only when i am direktly using the systemconsole. i´m not able to read it from matlab because there is no output from the system-console.exe given back to matlab.

    i wanna try it by using your posted matlabapi.

    so i hope you can repost it.

    greets
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    14 years ago

    That's odd, I can't download it either. I have deleted the attachment to prevent others wasting their time on this. I'm afraid I don't have access to the file right now so I can't re-zip it and re-upload.

    Quartus II 11.0 contains the real matlabapi, this willl be released on the 6th May so if you can wait two days more then you can try the real one.

    Using the real matlabAPI has the advantage that the SystemConsoleLink java object will support the executeTcl method - this lets you pass TCL to the SystemConsole interpreter and get the results. That doesn't work with the 10.1 matlabapi prototype.

    Sorry I can't help more, but I won't have access to the matlabapi file until next week, so you'll get there faster if you can wait two more days for the 11.0 release.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    14 years ago

    hi wombat!

    thank you very much for this information.

    i will wait for quartus II 11.0.

    perhaps with the api i can solve my problems of communicate with nios.

    at the moment i am able to write data to memory by sending a tcl-skript ("tcl.tcl") via matlab:

    dos('system-console.exe --script=tcl.tcl')

    by using the command i get no echo from the console.

    by typing in all the tcl commands i get back the information about memoryvalues. (master_read_memory $nios 0x00000020 4)

    i also thought about using the jtag_atlantis.dll.

    i don´t understand how to use it.

    i can send a string via jtag_atlantis but i don´t know how to get the string to nios. i also don´t know how to reallocate the memory information from the nios to get it to the host pc.

    a little bit frustrating, but thank you very much for the time you spent in answering my questions.

    greets
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    14 years ago

    Hi!

    now i have quartus 2 - 11.0 and the matlabapi but i have the next problem .

    i downloaded quartus 11 and its working fine.

    but the problem is - i dont know how to use the matlabapi. no help, tutorial, manual, ... available. altera has no small information about it on web!! - WHY???

    i downloaded the "systemconsole-api-90.zip" from the tutorials. there is an good documentation of using the classes.

    but importing the class in matlab does not work.

    i tried it with an other simple java class - no problem.

    i also found com.altera.systemconsole.matlabapi in my quartus installationdirectory. also extrated the SystemConsoleLink.class and the other 2 *.class an copied it to my working dir in matlab. - no success .

    i also searched the quartus online help. but there are only informations for the tcl - api.

    i think matlabapi should solve my problems but after hours of searching and trying - no success.

    i really dont know how to get the information of using the matlabapi.

    it would be very nice of you to give me a little more help where i can find informations about using this api.

    its noc

    greets