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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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18 years ago

NIOS II processor Not responding

Hi all ,

I developed a custom component(memory mapped). When I integrate it with the NIOS II processor in the sopc builder and try to run the NIOS II embeded systm as hardware I get the error message saying processor fails to respond.

1) when I remove my custom logic the sopc system works fine.

2) When I simulate the system (custom logic + sopc system) as ISS (instruction set simulatro) it passes.

2) my custom component pass in gate-level simulation as well. the custom component has a master interface, slave interface and my logic.

Any suggestion as to where to start the debugging? cos the NIOS II IDE just say the processor fail to respond. How can I figure what make the processor to fail.

shown below is the exact error I am getting. I think my custom component does something for the processor. Because when I remove my custom component from the design everything works fine. How to debug this? any help?

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

Pausing target processor: not responding.

Resetting and trying again: FAILED

Leaving target processor paused

yes I agree, this message is too generic.

Here is a block diagram of my design , please cut and past it on a new borwser to see the block diagram of the custom logic and sopc system.

Please help me to narro down this error. Right now im just trying to integrate one module at a time. i.e integrate the slave interface first and see if I can write through the slave interface to a dummy register and so on this is taking toomuch time ... Can any one seen this error before and how to narrow it down? pls help

angelfire.com/ga/ganen/system.JPG

angelfire.com/ga/ganen/SOC.JPG

http://angelfire.com/ga/ganen/system.JPG

http://angelfire.com/ga/ganen/SOC.JPG

3 Replies

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

    hello,

    I have DE2-70 board and I need to read a data file from my pc and write

    it into sdram for further processiong this data.I am using following code

    to open a file.but it is not working .

    # include <stdio.h>

    int main()

    {

    FILE * pFile;

    char mystring [100];

    pFile = fopen ("c:\myfile.txt" , "r");

    if (pFile == NULL) perror ("Error opening file");

    else {

    fgets (mystring , 100 , pFile);

    puts (mystring);

    fclose (pFile);

    }

    return 0;

    }

    I have also tried a template'host file system '

    but for all file related functions error is like..

    undefined reference to fopen etc.

    please help me.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    17 years ago

    I would agree w/ Frank's suggestion. Whether it's Nios, DSP Builder, or any other piece of MegaWizard IP, that seems to have been the culprit any time I've had pieces of logic come up dead-in-the-water. Is there anything else, driven by the Nios, that you can confirm is working (like a flashing LED, or the like)?

    I would make sure that the polarities of the resets in your new logic match the naming convention, as well. In the past, I've uncovered problems where the IP generator calls a reset "aclr" by default, when in fact there's a pull-down menu for selecting if you want the reset active-high or active-low, and it doesn't necessarily confirm that the two match.

    I also seem to remember my Nios projects having a reset module that's a clearing-house for the entire soft CPU's resets. If there's some handshaking that goes on between your logic and this module that's holding it in reset, that might be the problem, as well.