FPGA4U HowTo. 1 Introduction. 2 Minimum requirements. Recommended system. Operating systems

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1 FPGA4U HowTo 1 Introduction This document briefly describes how to install Altera s Softwares on your own personal computer, for use with our mini project. At the end of this tutorial, we expect that you are familiar with the tools and able to run the provided example program. The description of the mini project will be provided by the next exercise session. We recommend that you work in INF2 room since you have everything already installed. In this case you can jump to Section 4. The recommended versions of the softwares are 7.1 or 7.2. In INF2 room you have Nios II 7.1 installed. For installation at your personal computers we consider version 7.2. There is no significant difference in installing and using these two versions. 2 Minimum requirements Personal computer with IA32-compatible processor, such as Pentium or Athlon, at least 512 Mbytes of primary memory, and 6 Gbytes of free harddrive space. Microsoft Windows XP operating system. During installation, up to 6 Gbytes of additional hard drive space is needed. Recommended system Personal computer with IA-32-compatible processor running at a clock frequency of 1 GHz or more, with a primary memory of 1 Gbyte or more, and 6 Gbytes of free hard-drive space. Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 3. During installation, up to 6 Gbytes of additional hard drive space is needed. Operating systems We will provide support only for Windows users. Users of Windows Vista and Windows 7 must use version 7.2 of Altera software together with Service Pack 3 from Altera. Here we will not cover other operating systems. 1

2 3 Install Packages and Drivers You will need the following install packages: 1. Quartus II (logic design software) 2. Altera Megacore IP (logic blocks for Quartus II, including the Nios II processor) 3. Nios II EDS (Embedded Design Suite). This is an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for Nios II programs Together, the three packages require up to 6 Gbytes of hard-drive space. You will need another 6 Gbytes for temporary files during installation. Package files and temporary files can be deleted after the installation is finished. However, all three packages must have the same version. Either, all packages must be version 7.1, or all packages must be version 7.2. Mixing versions will create unpredictable problems (This is also valid about service packs). In our instructions we consider version 7.2. Newer versions of the Altera softwares have not been tested by us. Do not use them - we will be unable to help you with any questions or problems. The files must be installed in this order: Quartus - Megacore IP - Nios II EDS. We strongly recommend that you do not change the default install locations of any of the three install packages. This will install all components in subfolders of the path C:\altera. If there is not enough space on your C: drive, but enough space on the D: drive, we suggest you change C: to D: for all install packages. You should make no other changes to the default installations paths suggested by the packages. Any problems relating to an incorrect installation are best fixed by uninstalling all three packages, restarting Windows, and then re-installing the packages to the recommended default locations. Completing these operations often take several hours. NOTE for Windows 7 users: You might receive warning during installation of some of service packs that software might not have been properly installed. Windows 7 then offers an option to reinstall it with the recommended parameters. Accept this option. 2

3 Stepwise instructions This is a brief summary of how to install the three packages. You will install three packages followed by the necessary driver for fpga4u board. These instructions refer to version 7.2. Users with Windows XP can use either version 7.1 or version 7.2. Vista and Windows 7 users must have version 7.2, with the updates for Service Pack 3. However, all three packages must have the same version. Either, all packages must be version 7.1, or all packages must be version 7.2. Mixing versions will create unpredictable problems. All necessary files to install the three packages and service packs (version 7.2) are provided by LSR at this repository l.ch/groups/c/co/concurrence-f iles/www/. 1. Run the executable file 72 quartus windows (by double-clicking it). (The version 7.1 package is called 71 quartus windows). 2. On the first screen, a temporary path is shown. There is normally no need to change this path. You can delete the temporary files later. The path should look something like: C:\Documents and Settings\username\LOKALA 1\Temp 3. Click the Install button. 4. Click through the license agreement. 5. Do not change the default path, C:\altera\72 (or C:\altera\71 if you use version-7.1 packages). You can change the main drive in case of not enough space on C drive. 6. Select a Complete install. 7. The Talkback feature is not necessary for our labs, you may deselect it. 8. Click Finish at the end of the install process. 9. Run the executable file 72 ip windows (by double-clicking it). (The version 7.1 package is called 71 ip windows). 10. On the first screen, the temporary path is shown again. No need to change it, just click the Install button. 11. Click through the license agreement. 3

4 12. Do not change the default path, C:\altera\72 (or C:\altera\71 if you use version-7.1 packages). Use the same path which you used for Quartus. 13. Select a Complete install. 14. Click Finish at the end of the install process. 15. Run the executable file 72 nios2eds windows (by double-clicking it). (The version 7.1 package is called 71 nios2eds windows). 16. On the first screen, the temporary path is shown again. No need to change it, just click the Install button. 17. Click through the license agreement. 18. Do not change the default path, C:\altera\72 (or C:\altera\71 if you use version-7.1 packages). Again use the same path. 19. Select a Complete install. 20. Click Finish at the end of the install process. 21. All important files have now been copied to C:\altera\72 (or C:\altera\71 if you use version-7.1 packages, or something else if you changed the default path). 22. If you use Windows Vista or Windows 7, you must now install the three service packs. Install them in the same order as you installed the original programs: first 72sp3 quartus windows.exe, then 72sp3 ip windows.exe, and finally 72sp3 nios2eds windows.exe. The procedure for installing the updates is similar to the above, but somewhat simpler. 23. Now we want to install FPGA4U board driver. In order to do that download the driver from the repository (Usb-blaster 72.zip). 24. Unzip these drivers in the Quartus installation path (e.g., C:\altera\81\ quartus\drivers\ ). 25. Connect your FPGA4U to your computer, and when the driver path is required by Windows, make sure to select the path to the drivers (e.g., C:\altera\72\quartus\drivers\usb-blaster 72\x32 ). You may see a warning saying that this driver has not passed windows logo testing. Ignore it by clicking on Continue Anyway. When you have finished installation, we suggest you proceed to running the example program in the next section. 4

5 4 Run Example Program Provided files The following files are provided at the repository: Modulo.sof and ModuloSys.ptf that represent system description. You will use it to program your PFGA4U board. source files: system m.h, system m.c, assembly.h, asm.s and example.c which are needed to run the example program and also your mini project (all are in a file named example.zip). Stepwise instructions Start the Nios II IDE. You can double-click the shortcut on your desktop, or click the Start button, then All Programs, then the Altera folder, then the Nios II EDS 7.2 folder, then the Nios II 7.2 IDE shortcut. The procedure is similar for version The Welcome screen may appear. Close it by clicking the Workbench arrow in the upper right corner. 2. If you are in the computer room (otherwise ignore this step and go to step 3): Click File, then Switch Workspace... and then select a workspace directory in the root of the Z drive like : Z:/Workspace (note that Z is a network drive which should be mapped). It should not have any space or illegal characters and it should be in root. Otherwise you will get an error. This is the place where Nios II IDE put your projects. After the IDE will be restarted and it will switch to the new workspace that you made. 3. Copy the two files provided, Modulo.sof and Modulo.ptf, to the work space directory. In case you made a workspace directory in step 2, use Z:/Workspace otherwise use C:\altera\72\nios2eds\bin\eclipse\nios2ideworkspace Click File, then New, then Project... to start the New Project wizard selector. 5. Select Nios II C/C++ Application and click Next. 6. You will see the New Project dialog box. In this box, several steps must be performed. 5

6 7. In the Project Template selection box, scroll up and select the Blank Project template. 8. After selecting the Blank Project Template, check the box for Specify location. - For laptops, make sure that the location is the default path, such as C:\altera\72\nios2eds\bin\eclipse\nios2ide-workspace For computers in computer room, make sure that the location is the path you made in step 2, such as Z:\workspace - Always make sure that the path contains no spaces, such as C:\Documents and Settings - this will not work! - Nios II IDE will add your project name to the path. All projects use different folders. An error message appears if the path contains spaces. 9. Enter a name for your project. The name must contain only letters a-z and numbers - no spaces, no special characters, and no French alphabets. Furthermore, the name must start with a letter. 10. Upper-case letters (A-Z) and lower-case letters (a-z) can both be used. However, the Windows file-system is not case-sensitive. This means that, for example, the names LabWork and labwork are considered the same by the file-system. 11. In this example, use the name: Concurrence. An error message appears if the project name contains an illegal character. Use only letters a-z and numbers. 12. In Select Target Hardware box click on Browse and select the ModuloSys.ptf file in your workspace directory and click on Open. 13. Now Click Next. 14. In the new window, you must select Create a new system library. Then click Finish. 15. Now you will see three directories on the project browser of the IDE : altera.components, concurrence and concurrence syslib. 16. Select concurrence project by clicking on its name. 17. Right click on it and then select Import You will see a new dialog box called Import. Click general then file system and click Next. 6

7 19. Click on Browse in the top right corner of the new dialog box and select the directory that contains source files. Select all of them (system m.h, system m.c, assembly.h, asm.s and example.c) and then click on Finish. 20. Now you added all the source files to your project. Now you should program the FPGA with the provided Modulo.sof file. You do this by using Quartus II Programmer that you access with Tools Quartus II Programmer. Choose USB-Blaster using hardware setup button, then open file Modulo.sof from your workspace directory and click Start button. Now come back to the IDE window and keep Quartus II Programmer window open in the background. 21. Select concurrence project by clicking on its name. Right click on it and select Build Project. 22. After building your project, which may take some while, again select concurrence project by clicking on its name. Right click on it and select Run As and choose Nios II Hardware. 23. Now the built project will be run on FPGA4U board by downloading the code to the board and running the example.c file. You should see two LEDs, green and red, on the board turned on and an output on the Terminal in this form: f1: first time - count = 1, localcount = 1 f2: first time - count = 2, localcount = 2 f1: second time - count = 3, localcount = 2 f2: second time - count = 5, localcount = 4 count = You successfully had run the provided example file on FPGA4U board. 5 Exploring example program In example.c file, apart from standard C libraries, we used some other different header files which you should also use in your project : altera avalon pio regs.h, system.h and system m.h, which we will explain. 5.1 System Description and Peripherals (altera avalon pio regs.h and system.h) System description can be found in the file system.h that is located in the folder pname syslib/debug/system description, where pname stands for 7

8 the name of the project chosen, e.g. if concurrence is a project name, the file system.h can be found in location concurrence syslib/debug/system description in your workspace directory. This file is generated during building the project. This file is important because it holds names of registers that you will use to access peripherals, e.g. buttons or LEDs. Parts of interest are Button configurations, LED 0 configuration, LED 1 configuration and LED 2 configuration. Buttons and LEDs The file you probably want to take a look is altera avalon pio regs.h, located in your workspace directory at /altera.components/ip Device Drivers/ sopc builder ip/altera avalon pio/hal, that holds definitions of functions that can be used to access buttons and LEDs control and data registers. Description of important functions ( altera avalon pio regs.h ): IOWR ALTERA AVALON PIO DATA(base, data) - this function is used to change the value of PIO (parallel input/output) data register. The value of parameter base should be the peripheral s base address that can be found in file system.h, e.g. LED 0 BASE in case of LED 0. You should use this function to control LED display. IORD ALTERA AVALON PIO EDGE CAP(base) - this function is used to read the value of edge-capture register. The value of parameter base should be the peripheral s base address. It should be used to check whether button is pressed. There are four buttons at FPGA4U board, denoted with 0,1,2 and 3 and the status of each button (whether button was pressed or not) is kept by single bit in edge-capture register (the lowest bit is for button 0). Initially, the value of edge-capture register is 0x0, and when button is pressed, the corresponding bit is updated to 1, e.g. when button 1 is pressed, the value of edge capture register is 0x2. IOWR ALTERA AVALON PIO EDGE CAP(base, data) - this function is used to update the value of edge-capture register. The value of parameter base should be the peripheral s base address. It should be used to reset the value of edge-capture register so that new button press can be detected. Resetting the bit of edge-capture register is achieved by writing 1 at the corresponding place of edge-capture register, e.g. resetting 8

9 the second bit that corresponds to button 1 is achieved by writing value 0x2 to edge-capture register. 5.2 Description of important functions (system m.h) Process newprocess(void (*f), int* stack, int stacksize) newprocess is a procedure that creates a new process. Parameter f denotes the function that constitutes the code of process, stack and stacksize define the process stack. The function returns a reference to the created process. Before newprocess is invoked, it is necessary to allocate space (using malloc) for stack. void transfer(process p) This procedure suspends the currently running process and transfers control to process p. void iotransfer(process p, int interruptv) This procedure allows the running process to wait for interrupt interruptv ; It suspends the running process and transfers control to process p. A simple example of how to use these functions is shown in the file example.c. It also contains an example of the use of LEDs. 9