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. Scenarios for Booting Nios II from EPCQ Flash

Booting a Nios® II processor from an EPCQ flash has a similar flow to booting a Nios® II processor from a CFI flash.

The Nios® II processor supports the following two boot options using EPCQ flash:

  • The Nios® II processor application executes in place from EPCQ flash.
  • The Nios® II processor application is copied from EPCQ flash to RAM using a boot copier.
Table 2.  Summary of Nios II Processor Boot Options Using EPCQ Flash
Boot Option Application Code Stored Location Application Run-time Location Method
Nios® II processor application executes in place from EPCQ flash EPCQ EPCQ (XIP) + OCRAM (for writable data sections) Using alt_load() function
Nios® II processor application is copied from EPCQ flash to RAM using boot copier EPCQ OCRAM/ External RAM Using a memcpy-based boot copier

Section Content
Nios II Processor Application Execute-In-Place from EPCQ Flash
Nios II Processor Application Copied from EPCQ Flash to RAM

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