Article ID: 000074204 Content Type: Troubleshooting Last Reviewed: 02/24/2023

Why does the Mailbox IP become unresponsive or hang when writing to external QSPI flash memory when using Intel® Stratix® 10 FPGA or Intel Agilex® 7 devices?

Environment

    Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition
    Mailbox Client Intel® Stratix® 10 FPGA IP
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Description

Due to a problem in Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition Software version 20.2 and earlier, when using the Mailbox Client Intel® FPGA IP or Mailbox Avalon® Streaming Interface Client Intel® FPGA IP in Intel® Stratix® 10 FPGA or Intel Agilex® 7 devices, you may see that these Mailbox IP become unresponsive or hang when issuing the following commands :

QSPI_WRITE – Used to write RPD file content into QSPI flash

QSPI_WRITE_DEVICE_REG – Used to do sector erase on QSPI flash

When the problem occurs, the Mailbox IP cannot return valid data where Bit 0 (Data Valid Interrupt) of the Interrupt Status Register (ISR) returns ‘0’ or never asserts to ‘1’, which indicates the FIFO is empty. The IP cannot recover from the error state when resetting the IP.

 

 

Resolution

This issue is fixed in Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition Software version 20.3 and later. If facing the issue above, recompile the Mailbox IP in this software release.

Related Products

This article applies to 2 products

Intel Agilex® 7 FPGAs and SoC FPGAs F-Series
Intel® Stratix® 10 FPGAs and SoC FPGAs

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