Arty & Microblaze bootup from Flash

[oe7aft]

Hi,

Could anyone provide a complete step-by-step tutorial (perhaps in "ARTY Resource Center" style ;-) on how to boot  the Microblaze  and load the application program from the SPI flash on Arty?

I have carefully read this post  but I am missing some part, e.g. how to modify the "PARAM_VALUE.C_USE_STARTUP" parameter in the  *.xit file and how to clock the SPI flash. 

Thanks.

enrico

 

[AndrewHolzer]

Hi Enrico,

We currently do not have a step-by-step guide in the style of the Resource Center that teaches you how to boot a Microblaze application from SPI flash for the Arty. It's something that we are aware of and is in the works. There is, however, this Answer Record from Xilinx that is for Microblaze on the Kintex-7 KC705 Evaluaton Kit. It should still hold as a guide for the Arty in the interim until we have a Resource Center guide.

I am unaware as how to edit the *.xit file to change the C_USE_STARTUP value, but I do know that you can set that value in the block design that you have created for your Microblaze system. What you want to do is have already added the QSPI IP into your block design and then double click the block, allowing you to re-customize the IP. Click the IP Configuration tab and underneath the SPI Options is a checkbox for Enable STARTUP Primitive. You can check or uncheck this box as you need. If you are using the Arty board files, this option is set to be disabled already. The included image shows you what that window looks like and where to find this checkbox.

As for clocking the SPI you'll need a clock signal that is double the frequency at which you want the SPI to be clocked at. Giving the QSPI block a clock of 50MHz should sufficient.

If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to ask. I'll do what I can to help you,
AndrewH

 

[oe7aft]

Thanks Andrew,

in the meantime great step-by-step Tutorials on this topic have been made available here (under "Documents" ) and here and I have been able to store the application program on flash.

BR

Enrico