AN 736: Nios II Processor Booting From Altera Serial Flash (EPCQ)

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ID 683104
Date 5/20/2016
Public
Document Table of Contents
Document Table of Contents x
1. Nios II Processor Booting From Altera Serial Flash (EPCQ)
1. Nios II Processor Booting From Altera Serial Flash (EPCQ) x
1.1. Definitions 1.2. Description of the Altera Serial Flash Controller 1.3. Scenarios for Booting Nios II from EPCQ Flash 1.4. Nios II Processor Configuration and Boot Flow 1.5. Steps to Build a Bootable System 1.6. EPCQ HAL Driver 1.7. Nios II Processor Booting Elements 1.8. Revision History for Nios II Booting From Altera Serial Flash (EPCQ)
1.3. Scenarios for Booting Nios II from EPCQ Flash x
1.3.1. Nios II Processor Application Execute-In-Place from EPCQ Flash 1.3.2. Nios II Processor Application Copied from EPCQ Flash to RAM
1.5. Steps to Build a Bootable System x
1.5.1. Design 1.5.2. Configuration and Compilation 1.5.3. BSP Editor Settings 1.5.4. Application 1.5.5. Programming Files Conversion 1.5.6. Configuration for EPCQ Programming 1.5.7. Download 1.5.8. Reset and Boot
1.5.2. Configuration and Compilation x
1.5.2.1. Reset and Exception Vector Settings for Nios® II Execute-In-Place Method 1.5.2.2. Reset and Exception Vector Settings for Nios II Boot Copier Method
1.7. Nios II Processor Booting Elements x
1.7.1. Memcpy-based Nios II Boot Copier
1. Nios II Processor Booting From Altera Serial Flash (EPCQ)

1.3.2. Nios II Processor Application Copied from EPCQ Flash to RAM

You can use a boot copier to copy the Nios® II application from EPCQ flash to RAM when multiple iterations of application software development and high system performance are required. Intel® recommends this solution for Nios® II processor booting from Intel® Serial flash (EPCQ).

The Nios® II SBT tool automatically adds the Nios® II processor memcpy-based boot copier to the system when the executable file (.elf) is converted to the memory initialization file (.hex). The boot copier is located at the base address of the HEX data, followed by the application.

For this boot option, the Nios® II processor starts executing the boot copier software upon system reset which copies the application from the EPCQ to the internal or external RAM. Once this completes, the Nios® II processor transfers the program control over to the application.

Figure 1. EPCQ Flash Layout When Using Boot CopierIn this figure, the size of the FPGA image (*.sof) is estimated to be less than 0x01E00000. Customer data (*.hex) is set to start at address 0x01E000000 and the size of the *.hex file is assumed to be 0x0000E400.
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