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I am new to VHDL and FPGA. I have written a sample code which does EXOR of a and b and stores it in c. This code is in VHDL behavioral architecture. I am using Quartus 11.1+SP2-2.11.

I assigned pins say a to SW0, b to SW1 and c to LEDG0. Everything is compiling and there are no errors. I go to Tools->Programmer. I have my FPGA in RUN mode. Mode in Programmer is JTAG and hence the Hardware setup is USB-Blaster [PORT 0]. When I load the .sof file and Click "Start", the progress says "failed". I do not know why.

I tried to search everywhere, but all tutorials or links give the same explanation. I guess there are hardly any who encountered this problem. I want to know if I am missing something. I want to get my fundamentals right!

Qiu
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San
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  • Do you get any other error message than "failed"? DO you get the connection to the device? Are you programming the flash or directly into the FPGA? Is your configuration of the board set to the right programming mode? There are lots of things that can be wrong, and without more info, it is kind of hard to help you. – FarhadA Sep 27 '13 at 10:47
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    There has been a known problem on 64bit machines with the USB Blaster driver that ships with Quartus. It was usually fixed by additionally installing the stand-allone programmer from Altera, found here: https://www.altera.com/support/software/download/programming/quartus2/dnl-quartus2_programmer.jsp – youR.Fate Sep 27 '13 at 13:38
  • USB Blaster as you said was not being recognized and I installed a patch sp2-2.11. Now the hardware is recognized correctly but the problem is with the loading of my .sof file to the board. I know that the hardware is recognized because I can load the demo .sof file. – San Sep 28 '13 at 00:35
  • ftp://ftp.altera.com/up/pub/Tutorials/DE2/Digital_Logic/tut_quartus_intro_vhdl.pdf -This is the tutorial I am using. it is pretty clear but not working for me. – San Sep 28 '13 at 02:39

3 Answers3

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Are you by any chance using Linux? If you are make sure you've done this: http://www.alterawiki.com/wiki/Quartus_for_Linux#Setup_JTAG

Frankie Robertson
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  • Hi Frankie, I am using Windows 7. I cannot understand why it doesn't work. I have a demo file (.sof) provided by altera which runs completely fine! I am thinking if it is typical windows issue! Not sure. – San Sep 27 '13 at 04:20
  • How do you program the demo program? Do you program the FPGA or the flash memory? – FarhadA Sep 27 '13 at 10:49
  • ftp://ftp.altera.com/up/pub/Tutorials/DE2/Digital_Logic/tut_quartus_intro_vhdl.pdf -This is the tutorial I am using. it is pretty clear but not working for me. – San Sep 28 '13 at 02:40
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There can be multiple reasons as to why the loading of .sof to FPGA fails. I figured out the following for my device. If any of you are beginners, please follow the same:

1) Make sure you have the data sheet of your device with you. I followed a tutorial and entered the device number they mentioned not the one I had.

2) Check for pin assignments. This is the most important. I found out the Pins used for various switches and LEDs in a consolidated document online.

3) If it still does not work, it is best to contact experts.

Qiu
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San
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Is thee FPGA an Altera DE2? If yes, you can try with this file that works with the DE2 board so that you can know if it is your .sof file that needs to be changed. If the USB blaser appears in Quartus Programmer then most likely your driver is installed correctly and you should verify whether it is your .sof file that needs to change or something else.

Niklas Rosencrantz
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  • Hi, The FPGA I have is http://www.altera.com/products/devkits/altera/kit-cyc2-2C20N.html. I searched for Altera DE2, it is quite different from what i have. I also tried to load the .sof file you have provided, it failed to load as well (Probably because the board is not DE2). – San Sep 28 '13 at 02:06
  • ftp://ftp.altera.com/up/pub/Tutorials/DE2/Digital_Logic/tut_quartus_intro_vhdl.pdf -This is the tutorial I am using. it is pretty clear but not working for me. – San Sep 28 '13 at 02:39