Cyclone III + EPCS16 programming file type (JAM STAPL)

Hi,

I want to have some help to clarify and validate my understanding of the file type and programming tools:

So from the altera course:

http://www.altera.com/education/training/courses/odev1100

I have seen a table describing the file type linked with the possibility to write it on a flash memory (EPCS).

So the only files that it was possible to write to the flash memory was the .jic or the .pof. Since I'm on FPGA and the .pof is only for CPLD, this seem to be only possible to flash on memory with .jic file?

I'm concluding this because all the file type that I tried from the Quartus Web (jic,sof,jam,jbc) the only one that is showing a EPCS16 picture in the programmer is with the .jic file.

Since my interest is to use the JAM STAPL player to flash, I'm constating that this seem to be impossible to flash on the memory (EPCS16) with the JAM STAPL player since the JAM/JBC file are like sof file and are not permanent?

So by using quartus_jli to try this before JAM STAPL since it seem to be the same. The -a program fail and the -a configure option successed.

quartus_jli -a program output.jam -c 1

Info: *******************************************************************

Info: Running Quartus II 32-bit Jam Tools

Info: Version 11.1 Build 259 01/25/2012 Service Pack 2 SJ Web Edition

Info: Copyright (C) 1991-2011 Altera Corporation. All rights reserved.

Info: Your use of Altera Corporation's design tools, logic functions

Info: and other software and tools, and its AMPP partner logic

Info: functions, and any output files from any of the foregoing

Info: (including device programming or simulation files), and any

Info: associated documentation or information are expressly subject

Info: to the terms and conditions of the Altera Program License

Info: Subscription Agreement, Altera MegaCore Function License

Info: Agreement, or other applicable license agreement, including,

Info: without limitation, that your use is for the sole purpose of

Info: programming logic devices manufactured by Altera and sold by

Info: Altera or its authorized distributors. Please refer to the

Info: applicable agreement for further details.

Info: Processing started: Mon Apr 30 14:10:43 2012

Info: Command: quartus_jli -a program output.jam -c 1

Error in reading SFL VERSION

Unrecognized device

Exit code = 6... Unrecognized device

Error: Quartus II 32-bit Jam Tools was unsuccessful. 0 errors, 0 warnings

Error: Peak virtual memory: 40 megabytes

Error: Processing ended: Mon Apr 30 14:10:43 2012

Error: Elapsed time: 00:00:00

Error: Total CPU time (on all processors): 00:00:01

quartus_jli -a configure output.jam -c 1

Info: *******************************************************************

Info: Running Quartus II 32-bit Jam Tools

Info: Version 11.1 Build 259 01/25/2012 Service Pack 2 SJ Web Edition

Info: Copyright (C) 1991-2011 Altera Corporation. All rights reserved.

Info: Your use of Altera Corporation's design tools, logic functions

Info: and other software and tools, and its AMPP partner logic

Info: functions, and any output files from any of the foregoing

Info: (including device programming or simulation files), and any

Info: associated documentation or information are expressly subject

Info: to the terms and conditions of the Altera Program License

Info: Subscription Agreement, Altera MegaCore Function License

Info: Agreement, or other applicable license agreement, including,

Info: without limitation, that your use is for the sole purpose of

Info: programming logic devices manufactured by Altera and sold by

Info: Altera or its authorized distributors. Please refer to the

Info: applicable agreement for further details.

Info: Processing started: Mon Apr 30 14:15:49 2012

Info: Command: quartus_jli -a configure output.jam -c 1

Device# 1 IDCODE is 020F20DD

configuring SRAM device(s)...

DONE

Exit code = 0... Success

Info: Quartus II 32-bit Jam Tools was successful. 0 errors, 0 warnings

Info: Peak virtual memory: 41 megabytes

Info: Processing ended: Mon Apr 30 14:15:55 2012

Info: Elapsed time: 00:00:06

Info: Total CPU time (on all processors): 00:00:01

But further reading of the AN425.pdf

To program serial configuration devices using the Jam STAPL Player, the following

Jam commands are required. You must first configure the FPGA with the Serial

FlashLoader image before you program the serial configuration device.

quartus_jli -a configure output.jam -c 1

quartus_jli -a program output.jam -c 1

This was resulting with this:

Error: action "program" is not supported for this Jam file.

........................................

[SOLVED]:

So my first mistake was to generate the JAM file from a SOF file. My second mistake was to forget to check the options in the programmer before creating the JAM file. My third mistake was to forget to configure before programming.The way to go was from SOF -> JIC -> JAM with proper check options and configure then program with the quartus_jli

So the steps to create a clean jam file, I presume the jbc steps will be the same but not tested yet:

1- Compile to create a sof file

2- Go to Menu File/Convert Programming Files...

3- Select Programming file type: (.jic)

4- Select Configuration type: EPCS16

5- Leave Mode to: Active

6- Select Flash Loader and click Add Device (Cyclone III + EP3C16)

7- Click on SOF Data + Add file (add sof file)

8- Click on Generate

9- Open the Programmer

10- Delete the sof file

11- Click on Add File: output_file.jic

12- Check Program/Configure, Verify and Blank-Check (REALLY IMPORTANT otherwise -aprogram will not work a minimum of Program/Configure option is needed).

13- Go to File/ Create JAM, JBC File and click on OK after selecting the JAM format

14- Open terminal and change directory to the directory where the jam file have been generated (Project directory if was not change during the JAM file creation)

15- quartus_jli -a configure output_file.jam -c 1

16- quartus_jli -a program output_file.jam -c 1

Hope that this could save some times to others.

-KA