Arria 10 GX Transceiver Signal Integrity Development Kit User Guide

ID 683553
Date 8/08/2017
Public
Document Table of Contents

4.2. Using the Board Update Portal to Update User Designs

The Board Update Portal allows you to write new designs to the user portion of flash memory. Designs must be in the Nios® II Flash Programmer File (.flash) format.

Design files available from the Arria 10 GX Transceiver Signal Integrity Development Kit web page include .flash files. You can also create .flash files from your own custom design. Refer to “ Preparing Design Files for Flash Programming ” in the Appendix of this user guide 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. The file takes about 20 seconds to upload.
  4. To configure the FPGA with the new design after the flash memory upload process is complete, set SW3.2 to ON (0) position.

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 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 ” in the Appendix of this user guide.