EP3C16F256I7N Altera, EP3C16F256I7N Datasheet - Page 265

• Manufacturer Part Number: EP3C16F256I7N
• Description: Cyclone III
• Manufacturer: Altera

Active Parallel
Configuration
(Supported
Flash
Memories)
Altera Corporation-Preliminary
March 2007
f
f
You can use the Quartus II software with the APU and the appropriate
configuration device programming adapter to program serial
configuration devices. All serial configuration devices are offered in an 8-
pin or 16-pin small outline integrated circuit (SOIC) package.
In production environments, serial configuration devices can be
programmed using multiple methods. Altera programming hardware or
other third-party programming hardware can be used to program blank
serial configuration devices before they are mounted onto printed circuit
boards (PCBs). Alternatively, you can use an on-board microprocessor to
program the serial configuration device in-system by porting the
reference C-based software driver provided by Altera (that is, the
SRunner software driver).
A serial configuration device can be programmed in-system by an
external microprocessor using SRunner. SRunner is a software driver
developed for embedded serial configuration device programming,
which can be easily customized to fit in different embedded systems.
SRunner is able to read a raw programming data (.rpd) file and write to
the serial configuration devices. The serial configuration device
programming time using SRunner is comparable to the programming
time with the Quartus II software.
For more information about SRunner, refer to the AN 418: SRunner: An
Embedded Solution for Serial Configuration Device Programming application
note and the source code on the Altera web site at www.altera.com.
For more information on programming serial configuration devices,
refer to the Serial Configuration Devices (EPCS1, EPCS4, EPCS16 and
EPCS64) Data Sheet in the Configuration Handbook.
Cyclone III devices offer the AP configuration scheme for Altera’s
devices. In the AP configuration scheme, Cyclone III devices are
configured using commodity 16-bit parallel flash memory. These external
non-volatile configuration devices are industry standard microprocessor
flash memories. The flash memories provide a fast interface to access
configuration data. The speedup in configuration time is mainly due to
the 16-bit wide parallel data bus which is used to retrieve data from the
flash.
Some of the smaller Cyclone III devices or package options do not
support the AP configuration scheme and do not have the MSEL[3] pin.
For more information, refer to
Active Parallel Configuration (Supported Flash Memories)
Table 10–2 on page
Cyclone III Device Handbook, Volume 1
10–5.
10–29