AN 736: Nios II Processor Booting From Altera Serial Flash (EPCQ)

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ID 683104
Date 5/20/2016
Public
Document Table of Contents
Document Table of Contents x
1. Nios II Processor Booting From Altera Serial Flash (EPCQ)
1. Nios II Processor Booting From Altera Serial Flash (EPCQ) x
1.1. Definitions 1.2. Description of the Altera Serial Flash Controller 1.3. Scenarios for Booting Nios II from EPCQ Flash 1.4. Nios II Processor Configuration and Boot Flow 1.5. Steps to Build a Bootable System 1.6. EPCQ HAL Driver 1.7. Nios II Processor Booting Elements 1.8. Revision History for Nios II Booting From Altera Serial Flash (EPCQ)
1.3. Scenarios for Booting Nios II from EPCQ Flash x
1.3.1. Nios II Processor Application Execute-In-Place from EPCQ Flash 1.3.2. Nios II Processor Application Copied from EPCQ Flash to RAM
1.5. Steps to Build a Bootable System x
1.5.1. Design 1.5.2. Configuration and Compilation 1.5.3. BSP Editor Settings 1.5.4. Application 1.5.5. Programming Files Conversion 1.5.6. Configuration for EPCQ Programming 1.5.7. Download 1.5.8. Reset and Boot
1.5.2. Configuration and Compilation x
1.5.2.1. Reset and Exception Vector Settings for Nios® II Execute-In-Place Method 1.5.2.2. Reset and Exception Vector Settings for Nios II Boot Copier Method
1.7. Nios II Processor Booting Elements x
1.7.1. Memcpy-based Nios II Boot Copier
1. Nios II Processor Booting From Altera Serial Flash (EPCQ)

1.3.1. Nios II Processor Application Execute-In-Place from EPCQ Flash

The execute-in-place option is suitable for Nios® II processor applications which require limited on-chip memory usage.

The alt_load() function operates as a mini boot copier which initializes and copies only the writable memory sections to on-chip RAM (OCRAM). The code section (.text), which is a read-only section, remains in the Intel® EPCQ flash memory region. Retaining the read-only section in EPCQ helps to minimize RAM use, but may limit the code execution performance. The Nios® II processor application is programmed into the EPCQ flash.

The Nios® II processor reset vector points to the EPCQ flash to allow code execution after the system resets. If you are debugging the application using the source-level debugger, you must use a hardware breakpoint because the EPCQ cannot efficiently support random memory access.

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