Honored Contributor
Honored ContributorYes, you can use a Terasic USB-Blaster. The EPCS device is simply an SPI Flash re-branded with Altera's logo. If you understand SPI, then you understand how to program the flash.
There are two methods for programming the EPCS device. The method to use depends on your board design. 1. 10-pin Active Serial header. If you have a board that has a 10-pin header with the words "Active Serial" or "AS Mode" next to the header (the UP3 board has such a header), then that connector is wired directly to the EPCS flash. If you are creating a programmer board, then that board needs to have a power source, and wire the 10-pin JTAG header for Active Serial mode (the USB-Blaster data sheet has the pin assignments, and any of the device handbooks have figures showing how to use this mode). The Quartus programmer has a pull-down menu that allows you to select Active Serial mode. Select that option, plug the USB-Blaster into your board, and you can program the device. 2. 10-pin JTAG Header. You can also program EPCS devices indirectly using an FPGA. You use the USB-Blaster to program the flash with a "Serial Flash Loader" (SFL) configuration, and then that is used as a JTAG-to-SPI bridge to program the EPCS flash. Quartus has a set of SFL designed pre-compiled, so you do not need to create the FPGA image, you just need to create the JTAG indirect configuration (.jic). Cheers, Dave
