Altera Stratix IV GX FPGA - Manual (Page 24)

5–2 Chapter 5: Board Update Portal
Using the Board Update Portal to Update User Designs
Stratix IV GX FPGA Development Kit User Guide March 2014 Altera Corporation
f You can also navigate directly to the Stratix IV GX FPGA Development Kit 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
portion of flash memory. Designs must be in the Nios II Flash Programmer File
(.flash) format.
1 Design files available from the Stratix IV GX FPGA Development Kit 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, and wait for the files to write to flash memory.
4. To configure the FPGA with the new design, set the rotary switch (SW2) to the 1
position and power cycle the board, or press the CONFIGN button (S1).
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
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 .