User guide

Storing Firmware on the Target Board

About Storing Firmware

After you have successfully built and debugged an application, you might want to store the

executable file (.elf) as firmware in your target hardware. You might store firmware in the

target at the end of the development process when the firmware is ready to release to

manufacturing. Alternatively, you might store firmware during the development process as

part of a test procedure.

The following sections discuss the two broad approaches to storing the firmware in the

hardware.

Storing Firmware in On-Chip Memory

Depending on the target FPGA architecture, you can design Nios II systems to initialize on-

chip memory immediately after FPGA configuration. If you configure the system library

project to place program code or data into on-chip memory, the Nios II IDE automatically

creates memory initialization files for the FPGA. The Nios II IDE stores these files in the

same location as the SOPC Builder system file (.ptf). When you are ready to release your

project's executable code, you must send the memory initialization file(s) back to the

hardware designer to include them in the FPGA design.

Memory initialization file names take the form: <name of memory>.hex.

Programming Firmware in Flash Memory

You can program your Nios II executable file directly to a flash memory in your

development hardware.

The Nios II IDE flash programmer provides an easy way to program flash memory

devices

on the target board using an Altera download cable, such as the USB Blaster. The flash

programmer programs executable software files (.elf) and SRAM object files (.sof) into

flash memory. The flash programmer can also program binary data files.

The flash programmer can program two kinds of devices:

Common flash interface (CFI) compliant flash memories

Altera EPCS serial configuration devices