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FPGA Controller

Overview

This module is an FPGA driver that can easily load a bitstream, reset it, check its status, enable or disable the FPGA. This sample demonstrates how to use the FPGA driver API and the FPGA controller shell subsystem. Currently the sample works with Quicklogic Quickfeather board [1].

Requirements

Zephyr RTOS or
Zephyr RTOS with shell subsystem enabled (for shell application)
Quicklogic Quickfeather board [1]

Building

For building on QuickLogic QuickFeather board:

# From the root of the zephyr repository
west build -b quick_feather samples/drivers/fpga/fpga_controller

To build the FPGA Controller shell application, use the supplied configuration file prj_shell.conf:

west build -b quick_feather samples/drivers/fpga/fpga_controller -- -DCONF_FILE=prj_shell.conf

Running

See QuickFeather on how to load an image to the board.

Sample output

Once the board is programmed, the LED should alternately flash red and green.

For the FPGA controller shell application, after connecting to the shell console you should see the following output:

Address of the bitstream (red): 0xADDR
Address of the bitstream (green): 0xADDR
Size of the bitstream (red): 75960
Size of the bitstream (green): 75960

uart:~$

This sample is already prepared with bitstreams. After executing the sample, you can see at what address it is stored and its size in bytes.

The FPGA controller command can now be used (fpga load <device> <address> <size in bytes>):

uart:~$ fpga load FPGA 0x2001a46c 75960
FPGA: loading bitstream

The LED should start blinking (color depending on the selected bitstream). To upload the bitstream again you need to reset the FPGA:

uart:~$ fpga reset FPGA
FPGA: resetting FPGA

You can also use your own bitstream. To load a bitstream into device memory, use devmem load command. It is important to use the -e option when sending a bitstream via xxd:

uart:~$ devmem load -e 0x10000
Loading...
Press ctrl-x + ctrl-q to stop

Now, the loader is waiting for data. You can either type it directly from the console or send it from the host PC (replace ttyX with the appropriate one for your shell console):

xxd -p data > /dev/ttyX

(It is important to use plain-style hex dump) Once the data is transferred, use Ctrl-X Ctrl-Q to quit loader. It will print the sum of the read bytes and return to the shell:

Number of bytes read: 75960
uart:~$

Now the bitstream can be uploaded again.

uart:~$ fpga load FPGA 0x10000 75960
FPGA: loading bitstream