Cyclone® III Active Parallel Remote System Upgrade

Overview

System designers face difficult challenges today such as shortened design cycles, evolving standards and system deployments in remote locations. Cyclone® III FPGAs help overcome these challenges with its inherent re-programmability and dedicated circuitry to perform remote system upgrades (RSUs). Cyclone® III FPGAs support the RSU feature in active parallel (AP) and active serial (AS) mode.

This design example shows you how to use the Cyclone® III RSU feature in AP mode. Cyclone® III FPGAs are able to receive new configuration data from a remote source, update the flash memory content, and reconfigure itself with the new configuration data. In this design example, user logic is instantiated in the design to interface with the altremote_update megafunction, directing the RSU circuitry to initiate the reconfiguration cycle. The user logic is written specifically to complement the altremote_update megafunction and educates you on altremote_update megafunction usage. This document is targeted for the Cyclone® III Starter Kit Board and is useful to get started with the RSU feature using the Cyclone® III FPGAs.

System Requirements

The Cyclone® III Active Parallel Remote System Upgrade design example requires Quartus® II Software Version 7.2 or later.