Description

This article gives an explanation and tutorial on how to bootload a DDR-linked application out of a parallel BPI flash on the Kintex KC705 board.

This is a minimal design, which will only use a MicroBlaze processor, DDR, Flash, and a UART-Lite peripheral. The addresses used are for demonstration purposes only, and can be edited at the desire of the end user.

Solution

Using Linear Flash (BPI):

1. Ensure the MODE pins on the KC705 are set to M[2:0] = 010
   • See Page 72 of the KC705 User Guide for information on how to do this
2. Build your Hardware in XPS
3. In Base System Builder, select the KC705 for your device.
4. Select DDR, Linear Flash, and UARTLITE for your peripherals
5. Click Next until Finished
6. Click Project -> Export Hardware Design to SDK
   • Ensure the Include bitstrem and BMM file checkbox is selected
7. Once SDK launches, create two new Xilinx C Projects (Under File -> New)
   • Hello World
   • SREC Bootloader
8. Ensure the linker scripts for each project point to the correct memory locations (right-click the application -> Generate Linker Script):
   • SREC Bootloader = BRAM
   • Hello World = DDR
9. Open the blconfig.h file in the SREC bootloader project.
   • Set the address to match the FLASH BASEADDR in the system.xml + 0x0120 0000 offset
   • For example, if the FLASH starts at 0x7600 0000, you set the address to 0x7720 0000
10. Build both applications with Ctrl-B
11. Attempt to download the SREC Bootloader to the FPGA using Xilinx Tools -> Program FPGA and selecting that elf.
    • It should fail. This just runs DATA2MEM to get a download.bit with the SREC bootloader in it.
12. Go to Xilinx Tools -> Program Flash
13. Select your Hello World ELF file (Generally under the workspace_dir/hello_world_0/Debug/hello_world_0.elf)
14. Check the box that says Convert to Bootable SREC format
15. Set the flash offset to 0x01200000
16. Program Flash
17. Back in SDK, click on Xilinx Tools -> Launch Shell
18. Type in:
    • promgen -p bin -c FF -o swapped.bin -data_file up 0 hello_world_0.elf.srec -w
    • you will need to point "hello_world_0.elf.srec" to wherever your srec is saved (generally under hw_platform_0/cache)
19. Open iMPACT
20. Click Create PROM file on the left side
21. Select BPI Flash -> Configure Single FPGA -> [Green Arrow]
22. Select Spartan-6 in Step 2
23. Select 32M
24. [Green Arrow]
25. Select a save location you will remember
26. File Format MCS
27. Data Width x16
28. Add Non-Configuration files YES
29. Click OK
30. Click OK on Start adding device file to Revision 0
31. Find your download.bit under the hw_platform_0/ folder
32. Do not add another Device File
33. Add the swapped.bin file you made in step (18) as the non-configuration/data file
34. Add it to address location 0x0090 0000
35. Click Generate on the Left Side
36. Initialize the Boundary Scan
37. Right-Click your device, and Add SPI/BPI flash
38. Assign the MCS you created in (25)
39. Right-click the device's flash, and click Program.
40. You should be done