Boot_loader_1.0 Version: 1.

0
Procedure for using Boot loader application in EDK Version Date: 29/02/2008

CG CoreEl Programmable Solutions, Bangalore

1
Application Note

Procedure for setting-up boot loader application to an embedded target system
using of XPS

1. Generate the SYSTEM.BIT file representing the hardware and software platform
2. Generate the EXECUTABLE.ELF file for your application, in which certain
sections are mapped to external memory using the LINKER SCRIPT
3. Generate the DOWNLOAD.BIT from SYSTEM.BIT with EXECUTABLE.ELF
using UPDATE BITSTREAM. The DATA2MEM is intelligent to initialize the
BRAMs in SYSTEM.BIT with only those sections allocated to BRAM memory ,
as specified in user LINKER script of the application and ignore the other
sections allocated to the external memory
4. Download the DOWNLOAD.BIT to the target system using JTAG interface
5. The significance of the above step is that it initializes the EMC(External Memory
Controller) peripheral which is mandatory for downloading the SREC file(ELF
image) to the COMPACT FLASH DRIVE using the JTAG interface
6. From the XPS menu option select DEVICE CONFIGURATION > PROGRAM
FLASH MEMORY to set the following options:
a. File to Program : <path of the folder> \ EXECUTABLE.ELF
b. Check Auto-convert file to boot loadable SREC format when
programming flash
c. Do not alter the Flash Memory Properties
d. Select the external DDR SRAM under Scratch Memory Properties
e. Check Create boot loader application
f. Observe the note FPGA must be pre-programmed with the bit stream
from an EDK design containing an EMC peripheral connected to FLASH
which is done in step 4 above
7. The following action is carried by the flash writer utility, after clicking OK
a. XPS creates a new software project for the processor with bootloader
application code (C source file)
b. It converts the ELF image of the application to SREC format and
c. Downloads it to the Flash memory
8. Under Applications tab of Project Information area, position the cursor on
Project: Bootloader_0 and right-click the mouse button and select Mark to
initialize BRAMs and unselect the same for all other software projects
9. Generate the new EXECUTABLE.ELF image for bootloader application by
clicking the Build all user applications under Software tab
10. Select Update bit stream to generate new DOWNLOAD.BIT which will
initialize the BRAMs of the SYSTEM.BIT with the new ELF image for boot loader
11. Download the new DOWNLOAD.BIT to FPGA using Download bit stream of
XPS
12. Observe in the HyperTerminal of the host PC, the following 3 lines echoed from
the target system to host PC:
EDK Bootloader:
Bootloader: Processed (0x)0000011c S-records
Executing program starting at address: fffffffc
Boot_loader_1.0 Version: 1.0
Procedure for using Boot loader application in EDK Version Date: 29/02/2008

CG CoreEl Programmable Solutions, Bangalore

2
13. Observe the bootloader.c file which contain the print statement for the above
three lines
14. You should be able to see your application execution execution from SRAM,
after the display of the above three lines in the hyper terminal, which confirms the
ELF image is copied to external memory followed by its initialization as per the
Program header in the ELF file. Note that the control is transferred to the reset
vector (fffffffc) of the user application and loader dies offas per 3
rd
line above
in the Hyperterminal

Revision History



Date Version Description Author
29
th
February ,2008 1.0 Initial release based on testing
the boot loader application
tested using XILINX ML403
board
B Nagaraj Reddy