This article has participated in the activity of “New person creation Ceremony”, and started the road of digging gold creation together.
preface
This course mainly introduces the main design configuration file types of FPGA, and demonstrates the steps of transforming sof files into JIC files, and solidifies the programs we have written into FPGA chips.
I. FPGA configuration file
The sof, POF and JIC files commonly used in FPGA are designed and configured.
- Sof (SRAM Object File)
The SOF is generated during program compilation, as shown in Figure 1 below. The Assembler stage produces files, including the SOF files, which are found in hexadecimal when sublime opens the SOF, as shown in Figure 2 below. FPGA has SRAM(Static RAM), which stores the FPGA design configuration information. SRAM is a kind of memory that is prone to power failure. In our experiments in the early courses, SOF files are used, and THE SOF files are burned to SRAM by JTAG to configure FPGA. When we press the power button and restart the development board, the program that was burned before is gone and needs to be burned again every time we run it.
- Pof (Programmer Object File)
The POF file is similar to the SOF file, but the POF file cannot be directly downloaded to the SRAM of FPGA, but directly downloaded to the configuration chip of FPGA through the ASP port. The configuration chip is generally a serial FLASH chip, and the FPGA will take the initiative to read data from the configuration chip and burn the internal SRAM data and then execute the program when it is powered on.
- Jic (JTAG Indirect Configuration)
Jic files are not generated during compilation, but are converted into sof files using Quartus Prime software. Through the JTAG port, the JIC file can be downloaded to the configuration chip (Flash) through the FPGA as a bridge chip.
Figure 1. Assembly generation file
Figure 2. Sof file contents
Sof to JIC
Figure 3. File conversion options
Figure 4. File Conversion TAB
Figure 5. Device selection
Figure 6. Adding the SOF file
Figure 7. Sof files in the output_Files folder
Figure 8. Generating a JIC file
Figure 9. Conversion successful
Figure 10. Jic file location
Figure 11. Click Programmer
Figure 12. Sof replacing jIC
Figure 13. Adding a JIC file with programmer
Figure 14. Selecting a JIC file
Figure 15. Start burning
Three, the operation effect
To be determined
conclusion
Once we are familiar with the process of curing, we can cure the written program into the Flash chip so that we do not need to re-burn the program every time we lose power. That’s all for this episode, thanks for watching!