Can you configure an Altera Stratix without the nStatus line?

Hello all, I recently bought one of the Parallax Stratix "SmartPack" boards on eBay. It was a good deal, and the FPGA works fine, but I've run into a bit of trouble with the PX loader program.

I'm not clear whether it is a problem with the loader itself, the serial port. I don't suspect the PIC microcontroller, as the initial default configuration loads. The trouble is, I don't understand the failure, or the protocol. I know from the docs that the binary data is RLE compressed, but I don't understand the handshaking stuff. I'm working on finding a workable configuration, but so far it hasn't gone too well.

In the event that I can't get the PX stuff working, I thought about just depopulating the PIC, and dead-bugging an appropriate configuration memory to the board. The problem is that the nStatus line may not be available. I do have access to nCONFIG, DEV_CLRn, CONF_DONE, DCLK, and DATA0.

I'm curious to know what would happen if one wired in, say, an EPCx device, and left the nCS line tied active. In theory, if you don't reuse the bit in the design, shouldn't it be harmless? Will this confuse the EPCx?

Thanks!

Reply to
radarman
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radarman schrieb:

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Antti

Reply to
Antti

That's a good link, but not applicable. I can download designs over the JTAG port, and they work just fine, which implies that the problem isn't in the configuration bitstream. Note, I used the supplied sample .qsf file as a reference, so I see the "ES" part in the device selection page.

The problem is that when I use one of the onboard com ports, the PX loader "hangs" midway through the transfer, requiring me to kill the process. It seems to always occur at 76 bytes, which is curious.

I've also tried it with a USB serial adapter, and the transfer does seem to complete; but the same design that worked just fine when loaded via JTAG fails when loaded via PX. I've been nervous about supplying the /P parameter, to program the onboard EEPROM.

I'm still trying various things, but right now I don't suspect an error in generating the programming file. It also occurred to me that this could be why the board was returned in the first place...

Reply to
radarman

While it would still be nice to know if the nStatus line can be tied off during configuration, it appears that the problem was with my PC. I tried another PC, and the PX loader works just fine.

Reply to
radarman

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