Cyclone III Configuration and Remote System Upgrade
Cyclone® III FPGAs offer the most comprehensive configuration and remote system upgrade solutions in the industry. These solutions are simple, easy to use, and low cost.
- Active Serial Configuration—Easiest configuration solution with Altera’s serial configuration devices. Remote system upgrades are available.
- Active Parallel Configuration—Configuration by commodity parallel flash. Remote system upgrades are available.
- Passive Serial Configuration—Configuration solution requires only two I/O pins.
- Fast Passive Parallel Configuration—Fastest configuration solution up to 800 Mbps.
- JTAG Configuration—Configuration using JTAG ports.
Cyclone III devices feature the dedicated recovery circuitry for remote system upgrades. Dedicated circuitry ensures that whenever an error occurs, whether during data transmission or device configuration, the Cyclone III device always returns to a known state and operates correctly, guaranteeing "always operational" functionality. Information about the error is also available to the controller.
Remote system upgrades are enabled using Cyclone III devices and flash memory. As shown in Figure 1, remote system upgrades occur in three simple steps:
- Send an update from the development location through a network to the Cyclone III device.
- Store the update in the memory.
- Update the Cyclone III device with the new data.
Figure 1. Remote System Upgrades With a Cyclone III Device
Reduce System Cost With Remote System Upgrades
You can store as many designs as the configuration device allows, which significantly reduces system cost. Instead of using a large FPGA to perform multiple tasks, you can select a small Cyclone III device to perform one task at a time with different images. The system can select the correct image among multiple images preloaded in a large configuration device. Because the flash device is much cheaper than an FPGA, you can significantly reduce your cost by using the remote system upgrade feature.
Cyclone III Serial and Parallel Flash Loader
The Cyclone III serial and parallel flash loader eliminates the extra programming hardware requirement and eases the configuration device programming. Quartus® II software automatically downloads the flash loader image to the Cyclone III device, which transforms it to a flash programmer. The programming information is then sent via the programming cable through the Cyclone III device to program the new design into the configuration device. Thus, there is no need for extra programming hardware for the configuration device.
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