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Altera_Forum
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12 years ago

Updating the flash PCIe-385N board

Hi,

When a PCIe-385N board is purchased and shipped directly from Nallatech, the flash is loaded with a default FPGA program compatible with the latest version of the OpenCL SDK tools. In other words, upon reception of the hardware, the PCIe-385N OpenCL SDK user can plug the board in their host system and follow the instructions of the OpenCL SDK Getting Started Guide to start using the board (available on the Altera website) assuming the latest version of the OpenCL Tools is installed on the host system.

The flash content is important because it is loaded by default in the FPGA upon power up of the PCIe-385N board; what FPGA program is loaded by default will allow the OpenCL SDK device driver to make use of the board or not. If the board is not programmed with the appropriate flash image the OpenCL Tools will not list the board in the Windows Device Manager in the Windows OS, or the "aocl install" command will fail in Linux. It is important for the version of the OpenCL program in flash to exactly match the version of the OpenCL SDK Tools installed on the host (13.0sp1 firmware in flash, for 13.0sp1 Altera OpenCL SDK Tools installed on the host, etc.).

PCIe-385N users might need to update the flash of their board for a few reasons, including:

  1. to set the default power up FPGA load to a known design

  2. to update the flash from an older version of the OpenCL SDK tools to the latest version

Using the AOCL utility, it is very easy to update the flash content. The method is described in the OpenCL SDK Getting Started Guide and shows how to use the "aocl flash design.oacx" command.

If the PCIe-385N was not delivered to the user directly from Nallatech, the content of the flash cannot be guaranteed and it is possible that the default FPGA design loaded in flash prevents the programming of the flash when using the "aocl flash design.oacx" command. In that case, the user should update their flash using the following workaround:

  1. Program the FPGA with the appropriate SOF file attached to this post using the Quartus-II Programmer

  2. And then, run the "aocl flash design.oacx" command

G

5 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    11 years ago

    Attaching documentation about connecting the breakout board to the PCIe-385 card

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    11 years ago

    Hi The Simth,

    to update your 385 to 14.0 please follow the instructions detailed on this thread: http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45550

    For your compile issues with the hello world example, I would recommend opening another thread and posting your entire quartus_sh_compile.log

    You will need an Altera OpenCL SDK license to compile this example in addition to your Quartus-II license.

    Thanks,

    G
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    11 years ago

    Hi gigi,

    I have read that thread this morning. Thanks for the detailed explanation. As for my problem, we do have an OpenCL license. It was running fine with 13.1. We are looking into it. Still, would you mind posting a design compiled with 14.0? It will save me and others some time.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    11 years ago

    Unsticking this thread since there is a new 13.1 to 14.0 thread for the Nallatech boards.