Downloading to Altera Nios Development Kit

1
Downloading to Altera Nios Development Kit

• CSCE 488
• Witawas Srisa-an

2
Documents Needed

• Im providing you with a copy of Nios
  Development Board Reference Manual, Stratix
  Edition.
• contain all the basic I/O pins for Stratix device
• overview of programming configurable device with
  Quartus
• overview of the default configuration that comes
  with the kit.

3
Before We Start

• Make sure you have the following issues resolved
• install Quartus with appropriate license (either
  web or seat license)
• have a working byteblaster MV or byteblaster II
• install byteblaster driver
• http//www.altera.com/support/software/drivers/dri
  -bb-xp.html

4
Custom Design in Nios Dev. Kit

• In this exercise, we will use schematic capturing
  tool to build an output driver for the board
• test push buttons
• test LED displays
• test 7 segment displays

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Our Simple Driver
6
Compile the Design

• Just use compiler tool to compile the design
• Once successful, perform the Pin Assignment
• Check the name of each I/O pin from the manual.
  For example, LED D0 is corresponding to pin H27
  (page 27)

7
Pin Assignment
8
Pin Assignment (cont.)

• assign LED D0 D3 for out1-out4
• assign sw3 for sw input and D7 for out5
• assign the first decimal place for clk_out and
  sw0 for reset input
• Look at figure 21 on page 35 and select the
  assignment for clk input
• Recompile your design. Once successful, go to
  tool menu and select programmer

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Programmer
Must be checked
must be the same as your project
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Programmer (cont.)

• If your byteblaster driver is installed
  correctly, you should see download progress bar
  moving.
• Once complete, your design is downloaded to the
  board.

11
PROBLEM!

• I see my design download to the board but I dont
  see the LEDs light up
• none of the push buttons are working
• the decimal point on the 7-segment display is not
  flashing

12
The configuration is wrong

• go to assignments-gtdevices-gtdevice pin options.
  
• Make sure you have selected Reserve all unused
  pins as inputs, tri-stated

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Select Unused Pins
14
Finishing Up

• Recompile your design
• Try programmer again, this time it should work

15
More about Nios Development Kit

• Configuration controller device (Max 7000)
• by default read data from the flash memory
• user can configure the device directly from
  download cable

0
400000
Web pages
User configuration Data
600000
700000
Safe Configuration Data
16
More about Nios
700000
FPGA Configuration Data
7A0000
Web Server Software
Network Setting
7F0000
17
Restoring Factory Setting

• Most likely, your board does not have the factory
  setting
• refer to Appendix B for more information
• NOTICE! You must install SOPC builder to be able
  to restore factory setting