Tutorial: Using the USB-Blaster as an SOPC/Qsys Avalon-MM master

Hi Dave,

Adding the qip file solve the issue.

It compiles now.

I will start trying in what you describe in chapter 5.

Thanks again.

Best Regards,

Kimberley

Hi Kimberley,

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Adding the qip file solve the issue.

It compiles now.

--- Quote End ---

Great!

Cheers,

Dave

Hi Dave,

Two more questions:

I got as far as page 33.

The System Console session works for "figure 13", meaning all the master_write and master_read commands.

The next System Console session works for "figure 14".

Except the reading and writing of the ram.

It appears that the response is overwriting other addresses as well, or the response is always the latest written value.

See attached the image of System Console writing and reading to address 0 and 1, with both different values.

When I re-read address 0, after I have written to address 1 as well, address 0 returns the value of address 1.

I've also attached an image of my sopc system.

The second question is: How do I get the tcl prompt as in "figure 15". Or in otherwords: How do I start a quartus_stp session that gives me a tcl prompt. When I type it in a dos-prompt I don't get a tcl prompt. See also an image attached of what I got.

Rgds,

Kimberleyhttps://www.alteraforum.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6444 https://www.alteraforum.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6445 https://www.alteraforum.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6446

Hi Kimberley,

--- Quote Start ---

The next System Console session works for "figure 14".

Except the reading and writing of the ram.

It appears that the response is overwriting other addresses as well, or the response is always the latest written value.

See attached the image of System Console writing and reading to address 0 and 1, with both different values.

When I re-read address 0, after I have written to address 1 as well, address 0 returns the value of address 1.

I've also attached an image of my sopc system.

--- Quote End ---

The Avalon-MM address passed to the procedure needs to be byte based, i.e., address 0 is the first address for a 32-bit write, while address 4 is the next address for a 32-bit write. Avalon-MM masters and the SOPC address map is byte-based ... sorry for not making that clearer :)

--- Quote Start ---

The second question is: How do I get the tcl prompt as in "figure 15". Or in otherwords: How do I start a quartus_stp session that gives me a tcl prompt. When I type it in a dos-prompt I don't get a tcl prompt. See also an image attached of what I got.

--- Quote End ---

quartus_stp -s

Cheers,

Dave

Hi Dave,

Just to let you know I completed the the quartus_stp -s session as well.

It works fine (on a monkey see, monkey do) basis. ;-)

One thing I noticed is that reading the ram on an not-times-4 address gives a different result then in System Console.

The read value 'shifts around'.

Why?

Rgds,

Kimberleyhttps://www.alteraforum.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6450

Hi Kimberly,

--- Quote Start ---

Just to let you know I completed the the quartus_stp -s session as well.

It works fine (on a monkey see, monkey do) basis. ;-)

--- Quote End ---

Excellent :)

--- Quote Start ---

One thing I noticed is that reading the ram on an not-times-4 address gives a different result then in System Console.

The read value 'shifts around'.

Why?

--- Quote End ---

I'm not sure what the 'exact' sequence going on in this particular case is, you could probe with SignalTap and see the transactions, but if you look carefully at the data, you'll see the value is not shifting randomly, its shifting relative to the LSB address bits, so for your write of 0x12345678 to address zero, the 32-bit little endian bytes in memory are:

 byte      byte
address    data
--------   -----
   0       0x78 
   1       0x56
   2       0x34
   3       0x12

If you read from address 0, the little-endian 32-bit word you read is 0x12345678, whereas if you read from 1, 0x56 will be in the LSB position, so you should read 0x78123456, which you do. Similarly, the read address 2 should be 0x56781234, and from 3 0x34567812, and again, these are the values you read.

Note how for each read, the 4 bytes at the modulo-4-byte address (address 0 or address 4) get packed into a 32-bit word little-endian style, where the LSB byte is the byte at the address you actually read from. As you work with computers, you will find this sort of modulo operation occurs with memory caches, DDR memory bursts, and other devices.

By the way - nice work on "just trying stuff" - and then asking questions when things do not appear to make sense.

Cheers,

Dave

Hi Kimberley,

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1) Figure 16 shows a TCL/TK GUI. Is that code also in the tutorial files?

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Yes - jtag_client_server/jtag_client.tcl.

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2) I've compiled the jtag_client.c file succesful.

I've started the server in quartus_stp.

When I write to the ram as described the server replies that it's an empty packet and disconnects. Why is that? See attached image as well.

3) The same appears with System Console. My first assumption would be that's something in the C-file, as both server application respond the same. Any suggestions? See the other attached image as well too.

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Try it several times. The server will produce the same message each time a client connects.

What is happening is that when you run the command line application, a socket is opened, the client sends the command, receives the response, closes the socket, and then exits. The server is still running, and it sees the client disconnect. The server is just reporting the status of the client socket as it closes down.

Cheers,

Dave

Hi Dave,

I got the client/server stuff running as well.

And also the TCL/TK GUI.

I want to thank you for the very informative document and source files.

It's very clear and very accurate with a lot of details.

And I also want to thank you for the help given trough this forum almost on a daily bases.

This has teached me a lot, and I want to start using this into my designs as well.

Thank you very much.

Best Regards,

Kimberley

Hi Kimberley,

--- Quote Start ---

I got the client/server stuff running as well.

And also the TCL/TK GUI.

--- Quote End ---

Excellent!

--- Quote Start ---

I want to thank you for the very informative document and source files.

It's very clear and very accurate with a lot of details.

And I also want to thank you for the help given trough this forum almost on a daily bases.

This has teached me a lot, and I want to start using this into my designs as well.

Thank you very much.

--- Quote End ---

You are welcome. It is always a pleasure to help someone willing to learn. Best of luck with your designs. Feel free to ask questions if you get stuck.

Cheers,

Dave

Hi Dave,

First of all, thank you for putting this tutorial together. It's very well written and it's been a great resource.

Unfortunately for me, I'm having some issues getting the jtag-to-Avalon-MM bridge to work on a Altera Stratix IV dev board, 530 edition. I'm able to get everything to compile, and everything passes in simulation. However, after programming the FPGA, and using quartus_stp to issue commands from Figure 15, I get the following error:

tcl> jtag_write 0 0 0x23

Error: incorrect number of response bytes!

Everything up to that point works. The jtag_open, jtag_print_hub_info and jtag_print_node_info all produce the expected result.

Do you have any ideas what could be going on here?

I should mention that I've modified the design a bit by dropping the button and LED PIOs, and moving the on chip RAM to address 0. But I've updated the scripts accordingly, and this modified version passes in simulation.

Anyways, if you have any pointers, I'd be grateful.

Thanks in advance,

Omid