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Loading the design from Compact Flash...

Hi everybody, It's been a while I'm struggling with ML310 board to have my design loaded from compact flash to the Virtex II-pro FPGA on the board. I'm generating system.ace file using iMPACT and program the compact flash using a card reader. In my design I have a Microblaze with an OPB timer, OPB SysAce controller and OPB uart-lite, I have some more controllers connected to OPB which I think should not matter in the flow of my design. In my software application I set the timer, write something to the STD-OUT which is RS232 and after executing some code I read the value of the timer again to know how many cycles it took for that piece of code. Anyway my problem is when I load the design to the compact flash, when I power on the device (or when I reset system_ace) sysAce Status LED on the board blinks several times and then all the LEDs including SysAce Status LED go green which to me means that it loaded the design to the FPGA. However the problem is the system seemingly goes to freeze mode. It doesn't write anything to hyperterminal so that I could know if it is working or not. As well no matter how much I keep SysAce button pressed it doesn't reset the sysace any more. As well I can't get connected to the board for debug using XMD through Parallel IV cable. So in fact I can't do anything except to shut down the board. I have no clue what the problem can be. I also tried using the bitstream already on the Xilinx ML310 Compact Flash card. I put my design in to folder cf7 but the same things happen when I want to load that design.

Do you have any clue what the problem can be? I'd appreciate it if you could point me to the solution or can introduce a tutorial or article which in fact shows how exactly configuring through flash can be done. I already went through several articles but still haven't been able to get it work.

I'd appreciate your comments and help beforehand,

Amir

Reply to
Xesium
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Hi Amir,

I have never had much luck generating ace files with impact, especially if you want to load program data for a microblaze or some such. The most reliable way I have found is to run the genace.tcl script from within an XPS/EDK shell. The syntax goes something like this:

xmd -tcl genace.tcl -jprog -hw -board ml310 - ace

There are other options to load program or data sections into external ram if needs be. You can find more info in the Emebedded System Tools Reference Manual

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If you just put the ace file it generates on a CF card by itself, the systemAce should load it no problems

Good luck,

Dave

Reply to
David

Thanks so much Dave. I actually tried this command: $ xmd -tcl genace.tcl -jprog -hw implementation/download.bit -board ml310 -target mdm -elf timer_test/executable.elf -ace system.ace

My software code is supposed to write something to hyperterminal through RS232 port and I have in fact populated the local BRAMs with the data and instructions of my software code and download.bit should contain that information (I tried commands with and without -elf timer_test/executable.elf). When I download the bitstream through my computer everything looks OK and my code writes whatever it is supposed to write to hyperterminal. The structure that I have on my CF card is as follows: The CF for ML310 comes already loaded with some programs, when I turn on the device the ML310 demo on the CF is loaded and writes something on hyperterminal and gives me some options. There is one folder in the path: /xilinx/cf7 where I can copy my ace file to. If I want to execute and load my design when Xilinx demo is loaded I have to press 7 so that it loads my design (which is inside folder cf7). So whenever I hit 7 it says that it is loading new config 7, the sysAce Status on the board blinks twice (or three times) and then all the LEDs go green giving me the idea that now it's working. However if my code is actually loaded then it should write something to the hyperterminal but that doesn't happen! Firstly I don't know why it is so, secondly I know no more convenient way to make sure that my design is actually loaded and working (the only way I found convenient is to write something to the output)!

So I really appreciate any help or comment in this regards,

Amir

PS. By the way all the problems that I had like the system being frozen is solved now. I actually went back and designed everything from scratch and now that part is solved. I also made sure that ISE and EDK that I'm using (8.2) is updated with the latest service packs.

Reply to
Xesium

Did you try removing the "-target mdm" as well? If your program is in bram it shouldn't be necessary.

You could try a very simple design in ISE that just flashes a led or something and make an ace file from that. That should at least tell you whether it is a problem with the systemAce or the microblaze.

Also, re-reading your original post - you probably don't need the OPB SysAce controller unless you intend to write to the compact flash - it could be causing some conflict with the sysace chip if it's not set up properly.

Cheers, Dave

Reply to
David

Dave, Thanks so much. Actually removing -target mdm worked! I feel dumb to have spent weeks trying to fix this issue! But at least it is working now!

Thanks a lot again,

Amir

Reply to
Xesium

No problem Amir. I suspect that the -target mdm switch was stopping the mircroblaze, in much the same way as it stops when you connect to it with xmd.

Dave

Reply to
D.J.Mulligan

Dave, I actually realized that -target mdm was not a problem. Because later on when I did the same thing with -target mdm set it worked again. Previously I used to export my design to ISE and synthesize and place and route it there and then generate the ace file through iMPACT. However this time (that worked) I actually did everything through EDK and used shell commands to generate the ace file. So basically the design through ISE has some problems some where and I have not realized where exactly. I realized that the mode pins (M2M1M0) are set as 101 (boundary-scan) in EDK but the same in ISE were set as 111 (slave serial). I'm not sure but I think 101 is the desired configuration because sysAce is going to reconfigure from compact flash. So there is no external clock to the FPGA configuration unless I'm wrong. In any case I tried changing the configuration mode in ISE but it didn't work. So I'm not sure what exactly the problem is with ISE but obviously generating the ace file from the design in ISE doesn't work but the same in EDK is working.

Thanks Dave for the hint on using XPS/EDK shell.

Amir

Reply to
Xesium

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