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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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19 years ago

NIOSII Flash Programmer with Intel P30 Flash

I am trying to use the Flash Programmer in the NIOSII 6.1 toolset and I am having problems getting it to program an Intel P30 flash.

The flash is connected on a custom board through the CFI interface in SOPC builder.

The problem with these flash devices is that they come up locked. To program you have to unlock the sector you are trying to program first. I can read the flash fine.

I was looking for an option to the programmer that would force it to unlock the sectors before it programs.

Anybody have suggestions?

2 Replies

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

    Check the documentation of the chip, Spansion an probably most other devices need a high voltage of 11V for unlocking, but you should check, I am not sure. I do not see the point in selling a locked device, since than you have to unlock, program and relock it again.

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

    I have used this part before. It is not a problem with voltage. It is just that the power up default

    is to have all the sectors locked.

    Other devices power up with the sectors unlocked so programming is not an issue.

    I need to have an option to the nios2-flash-program command to unlock the sectors before it

    programs. There are perhaps other workarounds that I can do in operational code to unlock

    all the sectors before the flash programmer is called but I was hoping that it would be an option

    in the toolchain.

    This part will be very popular in the near future as it is pretty cheap for the size.