Problems with EPCS flash

Question

We are designing a product which will use the EPCS flash for non-volatile storage. I'm having trouble accessing that flash on the Cyclone I development board. It is the 4M part on that board. I have seen it work (same hardware, same software) but now it doesn't, at least I don’t think I changed anything but you know how these things go. I have had the memtest tutorial working on this board so I do not suspect the hardware. I can see through the debugger that alt_flash_dev_list does not get populated so of course alt_flash_open_dev comes back with a NULL. Does anyone know how alt_flash_dev_list gets populated and/or have any thoughts about where to look? Thanks.

Mike

altera_forum · Answer

Hmmmm,  I&amp;#39;ve been reading some others posts like this one:  http://www.niosforum.com/forum/index.php?a...f=17&amp;t=1900&amp;hl= (http://www.niosforum.com/forum/index.php?act=st&amp;f=17&amp;t=1900&amp;hl=)  It seems related to the topic but not quite the same. I know that our desire is to use the serial flash as a configuration device AND for the Nios code to be stored there AND to use it as general non-volatile storage. Is this possible? I would think that would be okay as the code is not running out of the flash, it is just downloaded from it to SDRAM on power-up.  Mike

altera_forum · Answer

Hi Mike,  &gt; I&amp;#39;m having trouble accessing that flash on the Cyclone I development board.  If you want to test the hardware, you can grab a pre-built u-boot and try the the &amp;#39;epcs&amp;#39; command.  If you are booting from the epcs controller, there was an old issue that caused some problems ... not sure if it was ever fixed since I have a work-around permanently added to all of my code. Anyway, the following may be relevant:  http://www.niosforum.com/forum/index.php?a...chip,and,select (http://www.niosforum.com/forum/index.php?act=st&amp;f=2&amp;t=1071&amp;hl=epcs,and,chip,and,select) http://www.niosforum.com/forum/index.php?a...ct=st&amp;f=2&amp;t=850 (http://www.niosforum.com/forum/index.php?act=st&amp;f=2&amp;t=850)  Regards, --Scott

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Problems with EPCS flash

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