Arty A7, program non volatile memory (store compiled program after power off)

[gongou]

Hello community, I am using an Arty A7 100t dev board, I would like to change the default program that comes after powering off the board to my own program (just like Arduinos when we power them off, it stores the last program that was compiled). Any tip on how to do this?

 

Is this done in vivado? I have tried to search for a different target memory, but could not find it.

Thank you in advance.

[Guest]

Hi gongou,

Just to be clear, you mean storing the FPGA configuration so it will come back after a power-cycle, right?

If yes: in Vivado you need to generate a "bin" file in addition to a "bit" file; you can enable this in the configuration settings of the bitstream generation step. Next, you will have to configure a "configuration device" (ie a flash chip model) for your FPGA, using Vivado's Hardware Manager. If you get that working, right clicking the flash chip (in the hardware manager) will give you an option to program the flash.

This is a bit terse but I hope it is enough. If not, I can provide more verbose instructions, but I'm quite positive you should be able to find this info in the Vivado docs.

[gongou]

Thank you for the fast reply, Iin Datasheet says "An on-board “mode” jumper (JP1) selects whether the FPGA will be programmed by the Quad-SPI flash on power up. ", so I should create the bin file, and change the mode jumper? @reddish

Edited November 30, 2022 by gongou

[Guest]

I am not sure if you should change the mode jumper. That depends on where it currently is.

[artvvb]

Hi @gongou

Detailed instructions on how to modify an HDL-only project to boot from SPI flash can be found here: https://digilent.com/reference/learn/programmable-logic/tutorials/arty-programming-guide/start

The guide is somewhat out of date and was created for the original Arty board before it was renamed to the Arty A7 (-35T and -100T), but everything is still be largely the same.

If you want to boot a Microblaze design, different steps are required, please let us know if that's what you are trying to do.

Thanks,

Arthur

[yash]

On 12/2/2022 at 1:56 AM, artvvb said:

Hi @gongou

Detailed instructions on how to modify an HDL-only project to boot from SPI flash can be found here: https://digilent.com/reference/learn/programmable-logic/tutorials/arty-programming-guide/start

The guide is somewhat out of date and was created for the original Arty board before it was renamed to the Arty A7 (-35T and -100T), but everything is still be largely the same.

If you want to boot a Microblaze design, different steps are required, please let us know if that's what you are trying to do.

Thanks,

Arthur

Hey, Im trying to boot a microblaze design on my arty A7 100T board, in the non volatile memory. Any tips for that? Thank you in advance!