CSCE351: Pre Project Lab

 

Pre-project Lab

Deadline & Weight

▪   At your own time

▪   0% weight in your final grade [1]

 

Objective

To get the project infrastructure ready

 

Design Environment

Hardware

á      A computer accessible by a team

á      FPGA boards: either DE1 (user manual) or DE2 (user manual)

á      Accessories: power cord, USB cable

DE1 board (user manual)

DE2 board (user manual)

 

Required Software

 

á      Quartus-II Web Edition v11.0, including Nios-II v11.0 Software Build Tools for Eclipse (download with registration required)

á      Nios-II Soft-Core: for DE1_NIOS-II (manual, zip) or DE2_NIOS-II (manual, zip)

á      USB Blaster Driver: indispensable for the communication between your computer and the DE1/DE2 board.

Host OS

User Manual

Installation Guide

Windows

User Guide

Windows 7/Vista or Windows XP

Linux

User Guide

Redhat

Optional Software

 

á      Virtualbox for Mac (download) [2]

 

Suggestion

 

á      During the Quartus-II installation, you can choose to only install "Cyclone Family II" to save storage space.

 

Download the Nios-II Soft CPU to the FPGA Platform

 

1.   Connect the DE1/DE2 board (BLASTER Port, not DEVICE Port) to your computer with the USB cable, and power it on.

2.   Click "Nios-II IDE" -> "Nios II" -> "Quartus II Programmer", and you will launch the FPGA programmer.

3.   Configure "Hardware Setup" as "USB-Blaster", configure "Mode" as "JTAG", and click "Auto Detect". You will see the detected "EP2C35" device.

4.   Double click the "<none>" field below the "File" tag, specify "DE1/DE2_Basic_Computer.sof" under your unzipped DE1/DE2_NIOS-II folder, check the "Program/Configure" box, and click "Start".

5.   When the "progress" bar reaches "100%(Successful)", you have finished downloading the Nios-II CPU to the DE1/DE2 board. After that, you can quit the FPGA programmer.

6.   Please be advised that the Nios-II CPU is volatile, which means that all configurations will be lost after your power off the DE1/DE2 board. You will have to repeat the procedures above next time.

 

 

Create a Nios-II C Project

 

1.   Click "Nios-II IDE" -> "File" -> "Nios II Application and BSP from Template".

2.   Specify the file "nios_system.sopcinfo" under your unzipped DE1/DE2_NIOS-II folder in the "SOPC Information File Name" field.

3.   Type your preferred "Project name".

4.   Change the "Project location" with the "Use default location" box unchecked if you want.

5.   Choose a "Project template". E.g., "Hello World" (or "Blank Project").

6.   Click "Finish"

 

 

Build the Project

 

1.   Click "Nios-II IDE" -> "Project" -> "Build All"

 

Observe the FPGA Platform Output

 

1.   Click "Nios-II IDE" -> "Run" -> "Run Configurations".

2.   Double click "Nios II Hardware".

3.   In the "Target Connection" tag, keep clicking "Refresh Connections" until you see the device information.

4.   In the "Project" tag, specify the name of the project that you want to run.

5.   Click "Run". After a while, you will see the message "Hello from Nios II!" printed out by your program, at the bottom of your ÒNios-II IDEÓ.

 

 

Debug the Project

 

1.   Click "Nios-II IDE" -> "Run" -> "Debug Configurations".

2.   Double click "New_Configuration" below the "Nios II Hardware" option.

3.   Click "Debug" so that the IDE window switches to the debug perspective.

4.   If you click "Nios-II IDE" -> "Debug Sub-Window" -> "Instruction Stepping Mode" icon, you will see the disassembly instructions of your C program. Later on, you can proceed with debugging instruction by instruction, which will be shown in the "Disassembly" tag at the bottom of the "Nios-II IDE". If you just want to debug your normal C program rather than its disassembly, you will need to click the "Instruction Stepping Mode" icon again so as to switch back to the normal stepping mode. In this case, you can also close the "Disassembly" tag if you want.

5.   You can do debugging as in other C/C++ IDEs, such as setting checkpoints, watching variable/register/memory values, or tracking the program execution step by step or continuously.

 

 

References

 

1.   ↑ Note: You don't need to submit anything for this lab by the deadline.

2.   ↑ Note: The Lab TA has no idea whether the Quartus-II Linux version can work on Mac. But the past practices indicated that Mac users can install a virtual machine (e.g., Virtualbox) plus a Windows OS on Mac to run Quartus-II and Nios-II IDEs.