[U-Boot] Question regarding FPGA firmware load in u-boot

[Dieter Kiermaier]

André,

> Dieter,
>
> On Fri, 2009-06-19 at 17:46 +0200, Dieter Kiermaier wrote:
> > Hello List,
> >
> > I want to boot a (Lattice) FPGA from u-boot by using Slave Serial
> > configuration on a Marvell Kirkwood device.
>
> Should be no problem as long as you'll have access to GPIO.

I'm working on it :)
But more likely I would have the SPI controller to do the serializing of the 
bitstream. But maybe this would be the second step.
>
> > As seen there is an (Xilinx and Altera) FPGA loader driver allready
> > available in u-boot.
> > Please can somebody explain how I have to provide a FPGA bitstream
> > image to u-boot?
>
> The easiest way is to reserve some unused flash sectors and use the
> first sector's start adress as arg for "fpga load".
>

I assume this will only work with NOR flash, right?
If I'm using NAND flash I have to copy the image to ram first?

> > It seems I have to create a image with mkimage?
>
> no - Lattice specififc bitstream can be stored in raw format.
> mkimage may be useful for update, but personally I prefer update via
> dedicated linux mtd partition.
>
> > This image have to be loaded into ram and the address has to be provided
> > to the load command?
>
> Usually an FPGA is *very* board specific. I'd suggest to use flash and
> create a corresponding mtd partition for linux, i.e. make it
> maintainable.
>
Seems to be a good way.
Is there a cmd in u-boot to read a file from a jffs2 filesystem inside a nand 
flash partition?

> > Is there a maintainer for the FPGA code inside u-boot?
> > I'm willing to contribute some extensions for Lattice FPGAs if I'm
> > successful!
>
> excellent - all you'll need is the Lattice specific bit toggle sequence.
>
> submitting a proper patch will surely do.
>
I'm trying to get an idea what place is the best to integrate the lattice 
architecture in to the fpga framework.
If I have any further questions - can I ask you again?

>
> Regards,
>
> André

Many thanks for helping,
Dieter


>
> > Thanks to all,
> > Dieter
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