User guide

A–2 Appendix A: Programming the Flash Memory Device
Programming Flash Memory Using the Board Update Portal
Stratix V GX FPGA Development Kit December 2014 Altera Corporation
User Guide
The Nios II EDS sof2flash command line utility converts your Quartus II-compiled
.sof into the .flash format necessary for the flash device. Similarly, the Nios II EDS
elf2flash command line utility converts your compiled and linked .elf software
design to .flash.
f For more information about Nios II EDS software tools and practices, refer to the
Embedded Software Development page of the Altera website.
Creating Flash Files Using the Nios II EDS
If you have an FPGA design developed using the Quartus II software, and software
developed using the Nios II EDS, follow these instructions:
1. On the Windows Start menu, click All Programs > Altera > Nios II EDS > Nios II
Command Shell.
2. In the Nios II command shell, navigate to the directory where your design files
reside and type the following Nios II EDS commands:
■ For Quartus II .sof files:
sof2flash --input=<yourfile>_hw.sof --output=<yourfile>_hw.flash --offset=0x020C0000
--pfl --optionbit=0x00030000 --programmingmode=PSr
■ For Nios II .elf files:
elf2flash --base=0x0 --end=0x0FFFFFFF --reset=0x071C0000 --input=<yourfile>_sw.elf
--output=<yourfile>_sw.flash
--boot=$SOPC_KIT_NIOS2/components/altera_nios2/boot_loader_cfi.srecr
The resulting .flash files are ready for flash device programming. If your design uses
additional files such as image data or files used by the runtime program, you must
first convert the files to .flash format. Once converted, concatenate them into one
.flash file before using the Board Update Portal to upload them.
1 The Board Update Portal standard .flash format conventionally uses either
<filename>_hw.flash for hardware design files or <filename>_sw.flash for software
design files.
Programming Flash Memory Using the Board Update Portal
Once you have the necessary .flash files, you can use the Board Update Portal to
reprogram the flash memory. Refer to “Using the Board Update Portal to Update User
Designs” on page 5–2 for more information.
1 If you have generated a .sof that operates without a software design file, you can still
use the Board Update Portal to upload your design. In this case, leave the Software
File Name field blank.
Programming Flash Memory Using the Nios II EDS
The Nios II EDS offers a nios2-flash-programmer utility to program the flash memory
directly. To program the .flash files or any compatible S-Record File (.srec) to the
board using nios2-flash-programmer, perform the following steps: