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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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9 years ago

HPS Debugging on DE1-SoC

I'm a firmware engineer (C & assembler) of many years experience looking to expand my FPGA skills, so have just ordered a DE1-SoC board for personal use.

As my surname's not Rockerfeller and I'm doing this on my own dime I will be using the free license 'Lite' versions of the Altera software tools.

I'm currently working through the training videos on Altera's site while I'm waiting for the board to arrive.

So am I understanding this right: it doesn't matter whether I run Linux, or write my own bare-metal C/assembler code, or port something like FreeRTOS... the free license does not allow for JTAG debugging using the Blaster on the ARM side?

If that is the case - how do people debug HPS side C code? Are we back in the land of debug printf's?

Apologies if I'm missing something obvious!

Thanks in advance.

5 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    9 years ago

    Dear Sir,

    Do not worry, the eclipse environnement, that comes with the Quartus tools, has a very decent debugger.

    I am using it with the Nios-II OS and you can debug, inspect registers as you like it.

    As long as you are connected to the board with the blaster, you can do a lot without a commercial license.

    Best Regards,

    Johi.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    9 years ago

    Thanks for the reply Johi.

    I realise the tools would work with the soft Nios-II core, buit I really wanted to play with the ARM A9 HPS, and I'm not 100% sure but I think this functionality is disabled with the free tools :(
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    9 years ago

    --- Quote Start ---

    Thanks for the reply Johi.

    I realise the tools would work with the soft Nios-II core, buit I really wanted to play with the ARM A9 HPS, and I'm not 100% sure but I think this functionality is disabled with the free tools :(

    --- Quote End ---

    Ethernet cable?
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    9 years ago

    No. Debuging bare metal code in ARM core with JTAG in it's own 64kb ROM. It's really weird that free vesion cant do this