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DomBraLV's avatar
DomBraLV
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3 years ago
Solved

Failed driver initialization of Serial Flash Controller II Intel FPGA IP

Hi all, I'm having a little trouble initializing the driver of a Serial Flash Controller II Intel FPGA IP core within a Nios2 system on a Cyclone 10 (10CX220YF780) FPGA. The flash device is conn...
  • DomBraLV's avatar
    DomBraLV
    3 years ago

    Hi Sheng,

    I have received some information regarding this topic from another end. An acqaintance of mine contacted the Intel support directly and just heard back from them.

    Here's the answer he received:

    There is a mistake in the Platform Designer for the "Serial Flash Controller II"
    The "Serial Flash Controller II" IP does not support external flash such as Micron.
    If you refer to the document located here:
    https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/docs/programmable/683130/22-2/configuration-device-types-85589.html

    Somehow there is a bug in the platform designer for the "Serial Flash Controller II" that the drop down list showed other flash option than intended.

    The correct IP that the customer should use is the "Generic QUAD Flash Controller II".
    If you see the code, there is a shift of 2 bytes to properly read the "memory capacity" byte instead of the device ID.

    I verified his suggestion to use the "Generic QUAD SPI Controller II" instead. Now it gets initialized automatically in alt_main() like a charm.

    Thank you for your effort!

    Best regards

    Dominik

ShengN_altera's avatar
ShengN_altera
Icon for Super Contributor rankSuper Contributor
3 years ago

Hi,


Check this https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/programmable/support-resources/design-guidance/configuration-support.html under Intel® Supported Configuration Devices - Intel Supported Third Party Configuration Devices:

  • Intel Quartus Programmer set the non-volatile configuration register during programming operation. User need to set the register manually if using a third-party programmer.

So probably have to manually make changes to altera_epcq_controller2_regs.h at line 261:

#define ALTERA_EPCQ_CONTROLLER2_DEVICE_ID_DATA_0_REG (0x20)


Best regards,

Sheng


p/s: If any answer from the community or Intel Support are helpful, please feel free to give best answer or rate 4/5 survey.


  • DomBraLV's avatar
    DomBraLV
    Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
    3 years ago

    Hi Sheng,

    I am using the Intel Quartus Programmer, so unfortunately, I don't see how this applies to my case.

    But still, I'm curious: what changes to said line 261 would you suggest?

    Best Regards,

    Dominik