Agilex™ 7 Configuration User Guide

ID 683673
Date 11/04/2024
Public
Document Table of Contents

5.4.2.2. Sub-Partition Table Layout

The following table shows the structure of the sub-partition table. The Quartus® Prime Programming File Generator software supports up to 126 partitions. Each sub-partition descriptor is 32 bytes.

Note: The firmware never updates the SPT.
Table 51.  Sub-partition Table Layout
Offset Size (in bytes) Description
0x000 4 Magic number 0x57713427
0x004 4 Version number:
  • 0 - before Quartus® Prime Pro Edition software version 20.4
  • 1 - starting with Quartus® Prime Pro Edition software version 20.4
0x008 4 Number of entries
0x00C 4 Checksum:
  • 0 - before Quartus® Prime Pro Edition software version 20.4
  • CRC32 checksum - starting with Quartus® Prime Pro Edition software version 20.4
0x010 16 Reserved
0x020 32 Sub-partition Descriptor 1
0x040 32 Sub-partition Descriptor 2
0xFE0 32 Sub-partition Descriptor 126

Starting with Quartus® Prime Pro Edition software version 20.4, the SPT header contains a CRC32 checksum that is computed over the whole SPT. The value of the CRC32 checksum field itself is assumed as zero when the checksum is computed.

The checksum is provided as a convenience so that SPT corruptions can better be detected by HPS software. By default the feature is turned off.

Each 32-byte sub-partition descriptor contains the following information:

Table 52.  Sub-partition Descriptor Layout
Offset Size Description
0x00 16 Sub-partition name, including a null string terminator
0x10 8 Sub-partition start offset
0x18 4 Sub-partition length
0x1C 4 Sub-partition flags
Two flags are currently defined:
  • System flag, if set to 1: Reserved for RSU system. For partition offset value, refer to RSU Image Sub-Partitions Layout.
  • Read-only flag, if set to 1: The system protects partition against direct writes.
Note: You can use the read-only flag as an additional information during your API development. Read-only flag=1 indicates the content can only be changed by API from Intel® .
The Intel Quartus Programming File Generator sets these flags as follows at image creation time, then they are not changed afterward:
Table 53.  Flags Specifying Contents and Access
Partition System Read Only
BOOT_INFO 1 1
FACTORY_IMAGE 1 1
SPT0 1 0
SPT1 1 0
CPB0 1 0
CPB1 1 0
P1 0 0
P2 0 0
Note: In order to successfully update SPTs, the HPS software (U-Boot or Linux) must be configured to have a QSPI erase granularity of 32 KB or less. When configured with a coarser erase granularity (like 64 KB for example), the operation fails. All supported flash devices offer erase granularities of 4 KB, 32 KB, and 64 KB, and the default for the current HPS software is 4 KB.