New ContributorCyclone V does not boot from S25FL128 if SOF2FLASH is used
Hi all
I need some hint:
We are using Cypress/Infineon S25FL128 as configuration flash for Intel Cyclone V FPGA. I use Quartus 17.0 Lite.
I created a simple Flash Programmer Project using "Nios® II Flash Programmer User Guide" with the changes according to "AN98558 In-System Programming for Cypress SPI Flash on Altera® FPGA Board" in Quartus 17.0 in order to access custom flash and successfully established connection with the Nios II and Flash. Here is an output of:
nios2-flash-programmer --epcs --base 0x120000 --debug --override nios2-flash-override.txt
Reading override file "nios2-flash-override.txt" Using cable "USB-Blaster [USB-0]", device 1, instance 0x00 Resetting and pausing target processor: OK Processor data bus width is 32 bits Looking for EPCS registers at address 0x00120000 (with 32bit alignment) Initial values: 0001703A 04C00074 9801483A 9CFFF804 983FFD1E 0000203A Not here: reserved fields are non-zero Looking for EPCS registers at address 0x00120100 (with 32bit alignment) Initial values: 93000237 6300080C 603FFD26 90000335 A8000C26 03010004 Not here: reserved fields are non-zero Looking for EPCS registers at address 0x00120200 (with 32bit alignment) Initial values: 02C02004 002EE03A 00000F06 90000335 4000683A 0017883A Not here: reserved fields are non-zero Looking for EPCS registers at address 0x00120300 (with 32bit alignment) Initial values: 3180080C 300C96BA 701CD07A 719CB03A 843FFFC4 803FF81E Not here: reserved fields are non-zero Looking for EPCS registers at address 0x00120400 (with 32bit alignment) Initial values: 00000000 00000000 00000260 00000000 00000000 00000001 Valid registers found EPCS signature is 0x01 EPCS identifier is 0x016018 Using EPCS size information from section [EPCS-016018] Device size is 16MByte (128Mbit) Erase regions are: offset 0: 256 x 64K EPCS status is 0x04 Leaving target processor paused
I also have my working SOF Bitstream, which I want to program. The SOF works absolutely fine if I program the FPGA directly with it using Quartus Programmer. But if I use
sof2flash --epcs
to create a .flash file and then program it into the flash using
nios2-flash-programmer --epcs --base=0x120000 --override=nios2-flash-override.txt <file>
The programming succeeds:
001A0000 (96): Programming Programmed 1686KB +42KB in 17.0s (101.6KB/s) Did not attempt to verify device contents
but FPGA does not boot up after power cycling. The funny thing is that I have an opportunity to program the S25FL128 using some old working image(unfortunately I have no access to the source code, so no Idea how it works) and after that FPGA boots up from the flash just fine. And if I read the flash contents using
nios2-flash-programmer --epcs --base=0x120000 --read --read-bytes=0,0x200000 --override=nios2-flash-override.txt <file>
the resulting file slightly differs from the one I've created with sof2flash utility. But if I flash this file back using above command, it works also. (offcourse I ensured that the flash was corrupted before).
So the problem is definitely somewhere in generated .flash file. I have compared two files a little and found that:
- The first lines in read file are:
S1230000FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFC S1230020FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFDC S1230040FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFBC S1230060FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF9C S1230080565656566C2FFFFFEC5FFFFF6F2FFFFFEC8FFFFF6D4FFFFFEE0FFFFFCD9FFFFFEE S12300A05D1FFFFF980FFFFF5C0FFFFF9C6FFFFF5CAFFFFF9A1FFFFF1A1FFFFF182FFFFF6F S12300C03D6FFFFF9E0FFFFFBA2FFFFF3E2FFFFFFE2FFFFFBC4FFFFF798FFFFF194FFFFFD5 S12300E03C8FFFFF3C2FFFFF3AAFFFFF980FFFFFBA0FFFFF994FFFFF994FFFFFB90FFFFFE5 S12301009A8FFFFFB8EFFFFF1AEFFFFFD0CFFFFF38AFFFFF1B2FFFFF342FFFFF788FFFFFD8 S1230120568FFFFF00003B9CFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF19
while in generated by sof2flash they are:
S32500000000000000008379737854541A00FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF45 S32500000020FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFDA S32500000040FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFBA S32500000060FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF9A S32500000080F565656566C2FFFFFEC5FFFFF6F2FFFFFEC8FFFFF6D4FFFFFEE0FFFFFCD9FFFF2E S325000000A0F5D1FFFFF980FFFFF5C0FFFFF9C6FFFFF5CAFFFFF9A1FFFFF1A1FFFFF182FFFF39 S325000000C0F3D6FFFFF9E0FFFFFBA2FFFFF3E2FFFFFFE2FFFFFBC4FFFFF798FFFFF194FFFF62 S325000000E0F3C8FFFFF3C2FFFFF3AAFFFFF980FFFFFBA0FFFFF994FFFFF994FFFFFB90FFFF44 S32500000100F9A8FFFFFB8EFFFFF1AEFFFFFD0CFFFFF38AFFFFF1B2FFFFF342FFFFF788FFFF43 S32500000120F568FFFFF00003B9CFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFA
The differences for me are:
- the first line is not all 0xFFs
- the contents of generated file are shifted by one byte.
- there are few other bytes are different in whole bitstream, but rest is identical.
I tried to use sof2flash in all kind of ways and with --epcq options, also tried to convert rbf file, but I always run into the issue that generated .flash file is not exactly same as working one and generated file never works.
Could someone help me investigate the issue? Unfortunately I could'nt find any answer by googling.
Thanks
I've actually found the problem.
The issue was that sof2flash utility could not generate proper srec file. Either the little-endian format was wrong or there were wrong bytes in header area.
To resolve this issue I used a third party utility https://sourceforge.net/projects/srecord/ to convert .rbf file into .flash
The command line for this is
srec_cat file.rbf -Binary −Bit_Reverse -Output=file.flash-Binary option specifies that input file has binary format
and
- Bit_Reverse option specifies reversing bits in output file.
With this command a proper .flash file can be generated, which then can be programmed using nios2-flash-programmer or quartus_pgm into Flash.
