NIOS II boot from QSPI

Question

Hello,I have a problem with booting NIOS from QSPI. If I set booting NIOS from on-chip flash everythink is OK. But If I set booting from QSPI according AN730 – boot option 4a NIOS doesn‘t boot. I was generated .hex file and programed QSPI by external programer. Next I was werificate QSPI memory content by system console as you can se on diagram 6. Content in .hex file and QSPI memory is the same. Reading from QSPI by system console work fine as you can see on diagram 1 and 2 and 6. Diagrams 3 and 4 and 5 shows physcical signals (CS, CLK, DQ0, DQ1, DQ2, DQ3) measured on leads QSPI memory. In this diagrams you can see periodic repeated signals and unsucesfull atempt to booting NIOS. Do you can advise what I am doing wrong? Is possible that somethink is missing in AN730? If you need more information I will add them. Project and measuring diagrams are in attachment.Environment:QSPI memory: N25Q128A13ESF40FFPGA: 10M50DAF484C7GQuartus Prime Version 18.0.0 Build 614 04/24/2018 SJ Lite Edition

guabin_n_intel · Answer

If both flash content and hex are the same, it should mean the hardware is working well. It's probably NIOS configuration setting.  There is another similar thread that may provide some debug steps https://forums.intel.com/s/question/0D50P000047eTCB/quartus-181-niosii-f-on-cyclomv-boot-fails?language=en_US&amp;s1oid=00DU0000000YT3c&amp;s1nid=0DB0P000000U1Hq&amp;emkind=chatterCommentNotification&amp;s1uid=0050P000008IfWN&amp;emtm=1543493351098&amp;fromEmail=1&amp;s1ext=0

vkoto · Answer

Thank you for your answer. But procedure in link is for CYCLONE V but I am using MAX10. Do you recomended me procedure for corect NIOS configuration seting using MAX10 and boot from QSPI memory? I strictly folowed AN730 but NIOS still doesn't boot. Or do you have some functional project where is used MAX10 and booting from QSPI and could you provide them?

Thank you.

guabin_n_intel · Answer

Which serial flash controller and flash memory are you using? To narrow down the issue, you may try out standard mode (x1) and lower the running freq.

vkoto · Answer

I was trying use Altera Generic QUAD SPI controller and Altera Generic QUAD SPI controller II and memory: N25Q128A13ESF40F. Running frequency only 5 MHz for QSPI and 50 MHz for NIOS and nothing helped. I atach my project. Can you check it please?

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NIOS II boot from QSPI

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