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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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15 years ago

Multicore boot out of epcs

Hi,

I have a booting problem. I want to start 2 Nios cores out of the epcs.

First CPU:

Reset-Vector EPCS

Exception-Vector SRAM

Second CPU:

Reset-Vector EPCS

Exception-Vector Onchip

both run very simple programs (one blinks an led the other does printf's).

if i make a multicore run everything works fine. Now i want ot program that into the epcs:

--- Quote Start ---

elf2flash --epcs --input="schiebe_reg.elf" --output="epcs_spansion.flash"

elf2flash --epcs --after="epcs_spansion.flash" --input="hello_world_1.elf" --output="epcs_spansion2.flash"

nios2-flash-programmer --epcs --base=0x00001000 --sidp=0x00001870 --id=451509676 --timestamp=1267769914 --instance=0 "epcs_spansion2.flash" --device=1

--- Quote End ---

thats how i tried it but nothing happend. Is it even possible to boot two cores out of one epcs? i don't understand how the cpus should know their startingpoints because i can't define an offset for the reset-vector like i do in a cfi flash.

any ideas or help?

MfG Sven

3 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    15 years ago

    As far as i had understood the epcs controler ip, when the fpga has finished fetching the image, it's internal pointer points to the first byte after the fpga image. and that byte is the first byte of your application image.

    normaly the reset vector points to the epcs controler ip that has a memory block used as a boot code memory. that routine now copies one byte after another from the epcs device to the destination memory and after that starts to execute the code from that location.

    so it will only copy your first ELF directly after the SOF

    in fact both would copy the same bytes as they both start the epcs boot copier routine, and i guess that is your problem. i don't think that epcs routine will setup correct memory locations inside the epcs depending upon your cpu.

    do both nios execute the boot copier routine at the same time ?

    can you control the reset of these nios cores, that the onw with the first ELF starts first and the the next nios ?
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    I could control one of them and try to keep the second in a reset state until the program of the first is starting.

    i have 2 EPCS (one altera and one spansion) and i want to use the second one as the boot memory for both.

    there comes the second problem. if i try to flash the program using the ide it wants to copy the sof into the spansion epcs too.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    i tried to use the advanced boot copier with the onchip memory option but i have a problem with the tcl thats used for it

    can someone explain me what that tcl script does and which line is for what reason?

    my error:

    INFO: Finished loading drivers from ensemble report.

    SCHWERWIEGEND: ErrorLogException: Tcl script "bootcopier_bsp_settings_boot_onchip.tcl " failed: Memory device is a null pointer

    SEVERE: nios2-bsp-create-settings failed.

    nios2-bsp-create-settings --settings settings.bsp --sopc Y:/V3/Quartus9_0/BOOT_ONCHIP/LUFU_Nios.sopcinfo

    --type hal --script bootcopier_bsp_settings_boot_onchip.t

    cl --cpu-name RT0 failed

    create-this-bsp failed

    i modified the script so that it should fit my project but it doesn't seem like i was successful.