How to generate bitstream to configure QSPI S25FL128SAGMF on Arty S7?

[kwible]

(Newbie here.  Sorry if this was covered elsewhere, and I couldn't find it.)

I got my simple FPGA design working on Arty S7.  Now I wish to program the onboard QSPI (S25FL128SAGMF), so the S7 will self-configure upon power up.

I found this Vivado doc about programming and debugging.  Chapter 6 covers Programming Configuration Memory Devices. 

Step 1 is to Generate the bitstream for use with configuration memory devices.

Is the same *.bit file (and settings) I already generated to program the S7 directly, or do settings need to change, because I'm going to program it into the QSPI memory?

Does Digilent have any Arty S7-specific documentation (or configuration files) for accomplishing this step?

[JColvin]

Hi @kwible,

To answer your first question, yes, this is the same .bit file you created that you will need, though you'll need to make it a .bin file

If the design is all done in Vivado (no Vitis/SDK/microprocessor used), the main thing you need to do is generate a .bin file. This is done in Vivado by opening the project settings, selecting the Bitstream option, and checking the bin_file box. At this point, you'll need to regenerate the bitstream to generate this .bin file. You can get some additional bitstream settings like compressing the bitstream (so programming from flash goes faster) and choosing what sort of SPI communication rate to use (x1, x2, x4) to use, if you open an implemented design first, which you get the option to open after successfully creating the implemented design.

Once the .bin file has been created, you'll be able to add the memory configuration part to your device in the Hardware Manager, as described in the Add a Memory Configuration Device section of the guide you linked (page 62). As you correctly stated, the device you'll look for is the S25FL128S (labeled as s25fl128sxxxxxx0-spi-x1_x2_x4, important distinction being the 0 after the x's) as your memory configuration part, which you can then program with the .bin file.

If you have a processor like Microblaze in your design, you can follow these steps:

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,
JColvin