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Altera_Forum
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14 years ago

Nios Processor Troubleshooting Help

Hello, this is my first post on these forums so excuse me if this is already covered elsewhere. I have searched for threads describing problems similar to mine but I haven't figured this out.

I currently have a custom board setup with a Cyclone II device and an ISSI and EPCS device for memory. My design in Quartus includes some peripherals and a Nios II processor built using SOPC builder containing the processor, SDRAM controller, EPCS controller, as well as a module for a USB port.

I am running a C++ program from a PC to communicate with the Nios processor via USB cable. I can send various commands to it, such as a "welcome" command which turns the LEDs on in a noticeable pattern.

A few months ago, I lost the ability to program the FPGA board. The lights would stay dimly lit until I used Quartus programmer to put new firmware, but on reboot it would disappear. I was also having trouble loading the .elf file into the relevant area on the board (I'm still not sure where this would be, but I'm guessing the ram for the processor to be running?), because before I would load both the .sof and .elf file into the EPCS.

When I tried to talk with the processor, it would say the port was opened but there is no answer. We guessed it was something to do with the EPCS chip and the .elf file wasn't ever getting loaded, so we replaced the EPCS chip.

This seems to have fixed the reboot problem. The lights do not stay dimly light up anymore and the Quartus firmware gets loaded on reboot. However, I have no way of verifying whether the .elf file gets loaded. Before, the LEDs would light up in the "welcome" pattern every time the processor powered up (or the board was reset, etc), and I have not seen that yet. I can open the USB port still but again no answer.

Something strange that happened: when I was switching my USB-Blaster cable from the Active Serial connector to the JTAG connector, as I was wiggling it out of the AS connector, the LEDs lit up in the "welcome" command pattern, as if the processor started up. However I wasn't able to open coms with the USB port in time to see if the processor was responding.

The person who designed this setup isn't available and I am a novice in Quartus and Nios, so I might be missing something elementary. Any help in troubleshooting this? Perhaps a debug tutorial relevant to a setup similar to mine? I haven't had any luck tracking down tutorials or examples that can help.

Could this be caused by a physical hardware issue, such as a bad USB port (though that doesn't explain the LEDs not lighting up)? Bad RAM? Bad Cyclone II?

Thank you...

14 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    14 years ago

    If you power your board without anything connected to the AS or JTAG ports, does it start and show the welcome pattern? In that case it could mean the USB cable somehow disturbs the communication with the EPCS during power up.

    If you do everything through JTAG (load a .sof configuration through the Quartus programmer, load the .elf file through nios2-download, open a nios2-terminal) does it work?
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    14 years ago

    Hi, thanks for the reply! The welcome pattern would still not light up if I did that, however I think I inadvertently tracked the problem down. I am using a PLL to get a clock from my base 40 MHz to 400 MHz and run a bit stream. It looks like under 80 MHz, everything works fine, but when I increase the clock to 400 MHz, I receive errors that the Nios processor does not match the specified value, and/or that "erase failed at offset 3000" when I try to upload the .sof and .elf files.

    What could be causing this? I want to make a note, I had to build this system from a zipped archive and I haven't successfully got the Nios IDE to build, so I am stuck with making only minor changes to the .sof file that wouldn't necessitate rebuilding the .elf file.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    14 years ago

    Going to move this to the Nios II section of the forum (you'll have more Nios II experts see your post this way)

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    14 years ago

    --- Quote Start ---

    Going to move this to the Nios II section of the forum (you'll have more Nios II experts see your post this way)

    --- Quote End ---

    Ah thanks, I suppose it fits better there.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    14 years ago

    A Nios CPU at 400MHz is too much for a Cyclone II. A 100MHz system frequency would be more reasonable. Did you constrain all your clock and does the design meet all timing requirements after a compile?

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    14 years ago

    If you tune the design assuming it caters well to it, you could exceed 150MHz. Make sure you check the timing report. I have a saying..... "If Timequest shows red, your design is dead" :) (in your case you are using TAN since Timequest is only used on Cyclone III and up) Also meeting timing doesn't necessarily mean you have working design either.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    14 years ago

    I started with a design that just contained the block the SOPC builder created, fed by a clock running at 40 MHz. With this I could communicate via USB cable and send commands.

    I needed to add a pseudo-random bit stream running at 400 Mbps so I took a second clock and fed it into a PLL to produce a 400 MHz clock. I then fed this into a linear feedback shift register and output to a LEMO pin. I have not added any timing constraints as this has never been as issue, is this important for a design to function correctly? I am a novice and I hoped I could add this bit stream next to the Nios system without affecting it. At the moment I can either communicate with the Nios CPU and have a slow bit stream, or get the Nios CPU error and have a fast bit stream.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    14 years ago

    You CAN'T run 400 mhz inside a cyclone II.

    Also a time constraint file is fundamental to any design... make a SDC file and i bet you are going to see a lot of critical warnings
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    14 years ago

    That is a maximum FPGA fabric frequency. Interconnects and soft processors are fairly complicated so it's physically not possible to achieve those speeds in an FPGA. That maximum speed is achievable for logic like this:

    Register --> little bit of combinational logic --> Register --> little bit of combinational logic --> etc....