Altera Arria II GX FPGA - Manual (Page 20)

5–2 Chapter 5: Board Update Portal
Using the Board Update Portal to Update User Designs
Arria II GX FPGA Development Kit, 6G Edition User Guide July 2010 Altera Corporation
5. Click Arria II GX FPGA Development Kit, 6G Edition on the Board Update
Portal web page to access the kit’s home page. Visit this page occasionally for
documentation updates and additional new designs.
f You can also navigate directly to the Arria II GX FPGA Development Kit, 6G Edition
page of the Altera website to determine if you have the latest kit software.
Using the Board Update Portal to Update User Designs
The Board Update Portal allows you to write new designs to the user hardware 1
portion of flash memory. Designs must be in the Nios II Flash Programmer File
(.flash) format.
1 Design files available from the Arria II GX FPGA Development Kit, 6G Edition page
of the Altera website include .flash files. You can also create .flash files from your
own custom design. Refer to
“Preparing Design Files for Flash Programming” on
page A–2 for information about preparing your own design for upload.
To upload a design over the network into the user portion of flash memory on your
board, perform the following steps:
1. Perform the steps in “Connecting to the Board Update Portal Web Page” to access
the Board Update Portal web page.
2. In the Hardware File Name field specify the .flash file that you either downloaded
from the Altera website or created on your own. If there is a software component
to the design, specify it in the same manner using the Software File Name field,
otherwise leave the Software File Name field blank.
3. Click Upload. The progress bar indicates the percent complete.
4. To configure the FPGA with the new design after the flash memory upload process
is complete, set the USR LOAD switch (SW4.4) to the on position and power cycle
the board, or press the IMAGE SEL button (PB6) until the CONFIG1 LED (D12)
illuminates and then press the LOAD IMAGE button (PB5). Refer to
Table 6–1 on
page 6–5 for information about the CONFIG LEDs.
1
As long as you don’t overwrite the factory image in the flash memory device, you can
continue to use the Board Update Portal to write new designs to the user hardware 1
portion of flash memory. If you do overwrite the factory image, you can restore it by
following the instructions in
“Restoring the Flash Device to the Factory Settings” on
page A–4 .