Daily Update – Day 11

– Found out that the SOPC builder present in most tutorials about SOPC design is being substituted by the Qsys.

– Installed the Quarthus® II Web Edition version 13.sp1 on my personal computer again. It seems to be working, more tests will be done tomorrow.

– Still struggling to make an application for a designed Nios® II soft core processor. When downloading the application to the FPGA, the error [ Failure to download .elf file ] shows up. Went to Altera® forum and read about this error. Possible causes of the error:

• The connections made during the Nios II design are wrong in some way that makes the processor not work properly. For example, the clock and reset cables may be linked and the processor is always reseting itself. Checked for this possibility and it doesn’t seem to be the case.
• The IP usage license expired. After a week the IP license expires and to window pops up whenever a design is downloaded into the FPGA. If this window is exited, then the design downloaded into the FPGA stops working. This is a measure to stop people from designing and shipping their design without an IP usage license. During the download, trials were made with the window untouched, but that does not seem to be the problem.
• The Eclipe IDE for software development to Nios® II may contain bugs. A true bug was already found in the process of project creation, but in this case a way around was available. This is a possible explanation for the error. A possible way around is using the command line, but that would take some time. A note is that Altera is working in its SOPC design tools, and both versions 13.1 and 14 of the Quarthus® software have updates in the Eclipse IDE and the Qsys®. Trying the new software could be a solution for this error, but a cyclone 4 FPGA would be needed to use Quarthus® II version 14.
• The OS or another external factor may be causing the error. In Altera forum was a report of a person who looked everywhere for the cause of this bug and couldn’t solve it, but after reinstalling the OS and the Quarthus® II Web Edition the error was gone.

– Went through the following tutorials :

• “How to Run a Nios II Application Using Quarthus II and Qsys”. Went through the entire tutorial for the third time. My understanding about the tools grew with each trial on this tutorial, specially because i tried to modify it slightly and observe what happened on the development environment. Although, had no success in running an application for the designed Nios® II soft core processor. Link for this tutorial : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS7pAp5EWRQ
• “Qsys + Nios II simple test”. This tutorial also uses Qsys® to design a simple Nios® II. The interesting part is that the tutorial fails to run an application for the designed Nios® II with the same error happening on the laboratory. Link for this tutorial : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQdE3XKWykk
• Several other tutorials, talks and classes about the Qsys® and the Eclipe IDE for software development to a customized Nios® II soft core processor.

Note: Some of the work above was done in the weekend.