Howto Program QSPI from SDK including Microblaze Software?

[party-pansen]

Hi,

I had no Problem to program the qspi from Vivado by following the guide from the resource center. But that only gives me the hardware configuration. I also need to Program the Microblaze from the SDK. In previous projects with the ISE tool I used the iMPACT tool from Xilinx, but that doesn't seem to be available!?

What is the best and easiest way to do a full programming (hardware and microblaze software) from the SDK?

I am using the Vivado 2015.3 WebPACK with a Nexys4-DDR Board.

Thanks

party-pansen

[AndrewHolzer]

Hi Party-Pansen,

As I understand, you want to use the SDK to create a Microblaze project that your Nexys4-DDR is able to load from QSPI, which includes the bitstream file and the Microblaze application project, correct?

The exact process isn't known to me, and I will be taught this on sometime in the next day or two. I can relay the process to you once I know how to do it, but I'll leave you with a quick and dirty explanation that might be able to point you in the right direction.

So, once you've configured your Microblaze system and exported it to the SDK, you'll want to create a new Application Project in the SDK. When creating this project, you want to template it with the SREC Bootloader project. You'll need to make some changes that are specific to your project and once that is is done you'll create an MCS file. This will create a bitstream that is stored in QSPI. This bitstream will fetch the Microblaze application and load it into memory after the FPGA is configured with it. Like I said, this is a quick and dirty explanation. I suggest that you keep an eye on this post, as I'll get back to you as soon as I have this information handy. I also hope that the small amount of information I gave you is helpful.

Thank you,
Andrew

[party-pansen]

Hi,

I found the solution to my Problem. First of all a short update of my problem: My application completely fits into the BRAM, so I dont want to use the Microblaze to Load Program Memory to DDR. I just want to use the QSPI to store my hardware+application to be able to boot from it. (Therefore I dont need to focus on the SREC application template)

The solution:

1. I need to generate a .mcs file out of the download.bit in SDK folder. As far as I understood, this download.bit is merged from the hardware.bit file and the application .elf file. The only way I found to genereate the .mcs file is to use the xImpact tool. This is only included in an old ISE Lab Tool Edition.

2. To Program to QSPI I used the Flash Programming tool out of my Vivado 2015.3 SDK tool.

3. Dont't forget to put the jumper to qspi instead of jtag;)

Thats all!

Thanks

party-pansen

[JColvin]

Hi party-pansen,

Thank you for sharing your solution!

Thanks,
JColvin