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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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20 years ago

Problem with Quartus II 5.0 and Nios II 5.0 Update

Hello,

Today I took the chance to install the latest Nios II 5.0 Evaluation Version with Quartus II 5.0. Building a project of mine is no problem but when trying to download the program to the board the last message which appears is:

nios2-terminal: (Use the IDE stop button or Ctrl-C to terminate)

After this the program should start but it doesn’t.

Is this a known problem?

Regards,

niosIIuser

2 Replies

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

    Hi,

    The problem has been detected. My system includes a standard DMA controller which comes with the installation of Nios. This one causes the problem. When leaving it away, generating and synthesizing the whole system the program starts. At now leaving the DMA away is not a problem. But for future designs it is. Are there any known problems with DMA and Nios II 5.0?

    Regards,

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

    Hello,

    In Germany sometime we say “People who can read are in advantage”. I don’t know if this a popular sentence in English but the answer of my problem is standing in “errata.htm”:

    DMA HAL routine results in illegal bus condition (SPR 176819)

    The Nios II DMA HAL routine results in illegal bus condition if:

    - the bursting DMA is connected to slaves wider than 32-bits or

    - the "word" checkbox on the Advanced tab in the GUI is unchecked or

    - the DMA master is connected only to slaves of data width less than or equal to 16 bits

    Workaround: Use a "freestanding" Nios II application to avoid using the HAL, and don't call the DMA init routine for the DMA in question.

    In my design the DMA was only generated for “halfword” access. After enabling “word” too all is working fine.

    Regards,

    niosIIuser