Introduction
The Intel® FPGA Serial Configuration Device (EPCS, EPCQ, and EPCQ-L) series are available as configuration ROMs for Intel® FPGAs. For capacities of 256 Mbits and above, a general-purpose QSPI Flash must be used.
The Intel® Quartus® Prime development software (hereafter Quartus® Prime) can be used to program the Intel® FPGA Serial Configuration Device.
In the case of Micron, Intel® Quartus® Prime v17.1 or higher is supported for programming general-purpose QSPI Flash devices of 256Mbits 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 a 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.
And to successfully complete the FPGA configuration, you must create an RPD file in Big Endian format.
This section describes how to create a Big Endian format RPD file using the Programming File Generator feature of Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro.
The devices covered in this article are Intel® Stratix® 10 FPGA and Intel Agilex® 7 FPGA.
(The Programming File Generator function is also supported by Cyclone® 10 LP and MAX® 10.)
How to create an RPD file in Big Endian format
From the Intel® Quartus® Prime File menu, select Programming File Generator.... from the File menu of Intel® Quartus® Prime.
When the screen appears, select "Programming File Generator..." from the File menu of Intel® Quartus® Prime,
Device Family: Stratix 10
Configuration mode : Active eria x4
Then, from the Output Files tab, select "Programming File Generator...".
Next, from the Output Files tab, check the Programmer Object Files (.pof) check box,
Then, from the Output Files tab, check the Programmer Object Files (.pof) checkbox,
Next, from the Output Files tab, check the Programmer Object Files (.pof) checkbox, and then check the Raw Programming Data File (.rpd) that appears below it.
In addition, highlight (click) the Raw Programming Data File (.rpd),
Edit...] button on the right becomes active, click the [Edit...] button, and then click the [Edit...] button. Click the [Edit...] button,
Click the "Edit..." button, and in the RPD Properties screen that appears, turn on the Bit swap: setting.
(This setting will generate files in Big Endian format.)
Next, select the Input Files tab, click the "Add Bitstream..." button on the right, and then click the "Add Bitstream..." button on the left. button on the right,
Select the appropriate sof file (the selected file will be displayed on the screen). (The selected file will appear on the screen.)
Next, select the Configuration Device tab, click the "Add Device..." button on the right, and select the appropriate sof file. button on the right,
Select the QSPI Flash to be used. (The figure below shows an example of selecting Micron's MT25QU01G.)
The selected QSPI Flash will appear on the screen, so highlight (click) on the name of the QSPI Flash,
The [Add Partition...] button on the right becomes active. button on the right becomes available.
Now, specify the sof file again.
Since the Input file : is set to none, select "Bitstream_1(xxxx.sof)" and click the OK button.
The selected file will appear on the screen.
This completes the configuration.
Click the Generate button to generate the file.
If the process is completed without error, a "Successfully generated output file(s). A dialog box opens and the file is generated.
Now you can use a 3rd party programmer to create a file to write configuration data (.RPD) to a generic QSPI Flash.