Re: [PATCHv3] drivers/misc: Altera active serial implementation

From: Thomas Chou
Date: Wed Nov 17 2010 - 21:11:45 EST


Hi hpa,

On 11/18/2010 02:52 AM, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
Do you happen to have a sample STmicro part number? Also, are you
saying that EPCS is *only* serial flash, or only for the purpose of
being programmed (as opposed to programming the FPGA afterwards)? It
just seems a bit surprising to me, since Xilinx right now seem to have a
bit of an advantage over Altera in being able to boot from stock SPI
flash...

EPCS16 = M25P16
EPCS64 = M25P64

Yes, EPCS is ONLY serial flash. The Altera EPCS controller is only SPI controller. It is well-known on Altera wiki and Altera forum.

You may use any stock SPI flash to replace EPCS as long as the access time met. Though Altera flash programming utility supports only limited brands, more SPI flash can be programmed using u-boot or Linux MTD. We often boot right out of SPI/EPCS, as it saves cost and space.

There is no difference between Altera and Xilinx in this aspect, except for their marketing approach.

Cheers,
Thomas
http://sopc.et.ntust.edu.tw/
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