FPGA loader

On this page, you will find all the informations needed to use the Linux FPGA loader driver. This driver allows you to load the FPGA of your APF board from Linux userspace/shell (ie FPGA reprogrammation after Linux boot).

Driver installation

Driver is installed in default Armadeus rootfs.

For the hackers, code is located in target/linux/modules/fpga/dev_tools/fpga_devtools/.

Driver usage

• To upload a new firmware, use the small helper script that can do all the job for you (load driver and then firmware). Just call it with the bitfile (.rbf for APF6SP and .bin for the other boards) as parameter. For example:

 # load_fpga bramtest_top_apf.bin

• For APF6_SP a periph.rbf must be loaded in U-Boot before, the core.rbf can then be loaded under linux with load_fpga:

 # load_fpga firmware.core.rbf

• You can find some ready to use bitfiles in firmware/leds/blinking_led/bin/ (blinking LED).

Note: On apf9328_devfull and on apf27_dev a LED is already soldered on fpga. For apf27_dev the fpga bank1 must be powered with 3.3V (connect pin 39 and pin 1 on J20 header)

Troubleshots

APF51

• Use binary format .bin, bitstream format .bit doesn't work.

All the troubleshots are handled by the /usr/bin/load_fpga utility, mentionned above.