Introduction
The Serial Configuration Device (EPCS, EPCQ, and EPCQ-L) series are available as configuration ROMs for Altera® FPGAs. capacities of 256 Mbits and above require the use of general-purpose QSPI Flash.
The Quartus® Prime development software (hereafter Quartus® Prime) can be used to program the Serial Configuration Device.
For Micron, Quartus® Prime v17.1 or higher is supported when programming general-purpose QSPI Flash devices of 256 Mbits or greater.
(pgm_allow_mt25q=on must be added to the quartus.ini file.)
On the other hand, care must be taken when using general-purpose programming writers.
For EPCS, EPCQ, EPCQ-L, and EPCQ-A, the major programming vendors support POF files, but when programming to general-purpose QSPI ROM, POF files However, when programming to a general-purpose QSPI ROM, a POF file is not supported, so an RPD file in binary file format must be created.
To successfully complete the FPGA configuration, it is necessary to create an RPD file in Big Endian format.
This section describes how to create a Big Endian format RPD file.
How to create a RPD file in Big Endian format
From the Quartus® Prime File menu, select Convert Programming Files.... from the File menu of Quartus® Prime.
The setting items are as follows.
- Programming file type: Select Programmer Object File (.pof).
- Configuration device: Select a general-purpose ROM (in this case, MT25QL256).
- Mode: Select Active Serial x4 or Active Serial.
- File name: Enter any file name.
- Check Create config data RPD
- For Input files to convert, specify SOF file.
To create an RPD file in Big Endian format, click the [Options/Boot info...] button. Click the [Options/Boot info...] button and check Big Endian.
Click the OK button to apply.
Now you can use a 3rd party programmer to create a file to write configuration data (.RPD) to a generic QSPI Flash.