FFPx16/FFPx32 rbf file, DE0 nano SoC and Atlas soc sd card v1.1

Hello all,

I bought the Terasic DE0 nano soc FPGA version a few years ago (I am a HW FPGA designer). The SD card was with kernel 3.something. A few weeks ago, I got a request to do some FPGA design on that board, the client ordered the Atlas SoC version in april 2017. I installed the latest Quartus, v16.1. I started from the gnu linux led example. I downloaded the latest Atlas SoC v1.1 SD card and used win32diskimager to create the new SD card with the new kernel. Customer did the same thing. But when I convert my SOF to rbf, I can only generate the FPPx16 version of the rbf. When I select FPPx32, Quartus says that this is not supported for this device. I noticed that in Quartus, I can select the right board with the right FPGA but if I search the FPGA in the list of FPGA’s, the right one isn’t there (note: 5CSEMA4U23C6N). So I sent the FPPx16 rbf file and my boot script to the customer but the linux boot gets stuck at the set mac address phase because the FPGA did not get programmed correctly while it goes fine on my board. The atlas image (as it was downloaded) works with both my board and the board from the customer. The obvious question I have is, are there several PCB versions of the DE0 nano SoC board? And is it normal that quartus 16.1 does not have that specific cyclone device in its list? Of course I might have overlooked something. Thanks.

I have had my MSEL switches in the wrong configuration before… which took me longer than I would like to admit to realize… could this be the problem? Check out the user manual pg. 12-13 for details.

@bmorcos, yes I checked them and checked the customers MSEL too, they
were all good. I cannot make sense of it, so in desperation, I reached out on this forum :grinning:.

And it bothers me that quartus 16.1 says FPPx32 is not supported for that device while
the user manual explicitly mentions this (already a few years):

I searched for a way to see if the rbf file in the SD image is x32 or x16 but there is not much info on that
for fast parallel programming (FPP).

I wanted to see if I could send the customer a FFPx32 file to test but Quartus refuses to.
Still the SD card with the original download Atlas Soc v1.1 works with both boards.
Putting my rbf + .scr + .dtb file on my card works with my board (MSEL =x16)
and not with the customers (and brandnew board, MSEL = x16).

Is your customer also using win32diskimager?

I will ask, but does it matter? Both images were downloaded and an SD card was made, which was
used on the boards and everything booted. The scr file is made with quartus, the dtb file too
and the sof to rbf (FPPx16) was also quartus. I always assumed the 32 in win32 was about
32-bit vs 64-bit host machines where the tool is running on. Tried to google it to confirm but
google is not what it used to be. Customer uses windows as well as I do (for FPGA it is windows,
linux for ASIC).