Altera Corporation
12–1
September 2004
12. Remote System
Configuration with Stratix &
Stratix GX Devices
Introduction
Altera Stratix and Stratix GX devices are the first programmable logic
devices (PLDs) featuring dedicated support for remote system
configuration. Using remote system configuration, a Stratix or Stratix GX
device can receive new configuration data from a remote source, update
the flash memory content (through enhanced configuration devices or
any other storage device), and then reconfigure itself with the new data.
Like all Altera SRAM-based devices, Stratix and Stratix GX devices
support standard configuration modes such as passive serial (PS), fast
passive parallel (FPP), and passive parallel asynchronous (PPA). You can
use the standard configuration modes with remote system configuration.
This chapter discusses remote system configuration of Stratix and Stratix
GX devices, and how to interface them with enhanced configuration
devices to enable this capability. This document also explains some
related remote system configuration topics, such as the watchdog timer,
remote system configuration registers, and factory or application
configurations files. The Quartus II software (version 2.1 and later)
supports remote system configuration.
Remote
Configuration
Operation
Remote system configuration has three major parts:
■
The Stratix or Stratix GX device receives updated or new data from a
remote source over a network (or through any other source that can
transfer data). You can implement a Nios (16-bit ISA) or Nios II
(32-bit ISA) embedded processor within either a Stratix or Stratix GX
device or an external processor to control the read and write
functions of configuration files from the remote source to the
memory device.
■
The new or updated information is stored into the memory device,
which can be an enhanced configuration device, industry-standard
flash memory device, or any other storage device (see
Figure 12–2).■
The Stratix or Stratix GX device updates itself with the new data from
the memory.
Figure 12–1 shows the concept of remote system configuration in Stratix
and Stratix GX devices.
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