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Altera_Forum
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16 years ago

Testing some flash routines

Hello,

I am trying to test some flash routines, really just modified mem_test from Nios apps on a new product board that

has no external reset.

The board is a working FPGA( CIII) that has actually booted from the EPCS with no Nios

What I have tried:

1. My first thought, I thought I was being clever, was to convert my time-limited SOF to a JIC. Then download my Nios

system into the EPCS. Since my Nios and test code are basically just a hex file attached to a SOF( using on-chip memory)

I thought that I could just open a shell and listen with the nios2-terminal as I powered on the FPGA.

This does not work, it may, because I cannot convert the time-limited SOF( I cannot attach the SOF file to the JIC creation).

2. Program SOFw/ hex. This is okay, but I see no Nios messages from the shell with a nios2-terminal?

3. Try debugging from IDE( seems like this is not recommended by Altera anymore, want users to use CLI). I try this after I have loaded SOF w/hex and I get strange message:

Warning: trying to use little-endian srec with big-endian hardware

Using cable "USB-Blaster [USB-0]", device 1, instance 0x00

Pausing target processor: not responding.

Resetting and trying again: FAILED

Leaving target processor paused

Possibilities?

1. Use the System Console, haven't tried yet. Help menu a little cryptic. Not sure how to restart Nios from Console. Maybe this will work?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Regards

1 Reply

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

    Hello,

    Actually item#2 is working, but I missed because there is some strange behavior on the JTAG uart. This may be related to me using alt_printfs( small Cyclone) and thus the alt_stdio.h, good advice for reducing image from slacker.( The Small C library did not work

    for me)

    So, to recap using a flow of just Program( w/GUI in this case) SOF file with embedded Hex file( on-chip memory),

    and then opening a shell and the "nios2-terminal" , prints are buffered and displayed.

    Regards