Attempting to Flash SPI PROM of a custom board - Dragon-L

[AnantaSrikar]

I am attempting to flash a bitstream to a custom FPGA board, called the Dragon-L. It has a Spartan-6 XC6SLX25T-CSG324 FPGA on board. I am using an Altera USB Blaster as the JTAG adapter.

I have built and tried the latest openFPGALoader. Upon trying to flash a bitstream, I got the following error:

❯ openFPGALoader -c usb-blaster ledblink.bit
empty
JTAG init failed with: Unknown device with IDCODE: 0x24024093 (manufacturer: 0x049 (Xilinx), part: 0x20 vers: 0x2

Then, I did some research and figured out I could add my the IDCODE to src/part.hpp. I added the following and recompiled:

        {0x04004093, {"xilinx", "spartan6", "xc6slx25",        6}},
+       {0x24024093, {"xilinx", "spartan6", "xc6slx25T",       6}},
        {0x04008093, {"xilinx", "spartan6", "xc6slx45",        6}},

Then, I was able to flash to the SRAM of the FPGA with the following output:

❯ ./openFPGALoader -c usb-blaster ledblink.bit --verbose 
empty
found 1 devices
index 0:
	idcode 0x24024093
	manufacturer xilinx
	family spartan6
	model  xc6slx25T
	irlength 6
File type : bit
Open file DONE
Parse file DONE
bitstream header infos
date: 2024/05/22
design_name: ledblink.ncd
hour: 10:26:28
part_name: 6slx25tcsg324
toolVersion: 0xFFFFFFFF
userID: 0xFFFFFFFF
load program
Load SRAM: [==================================================] 100.00%
Done
Shift IR 35
ir: 1 isc_done 1 isc_ena 0 init 1 done 1

I wanted to take it a step ahead and see if I could flash the same onto the onboard SPI flash, and tried adding the -f flag, and errored out with the following output:

❯ ./openFPGALoader -c usb-blaster -f ledblink.bit --verbose
empty
write to flash
found 1 devices
index 0:
	idcode 0x24024093
	manufacturer xilinx
	family spartan6
	model  xc6slx25T
	irlength 6
File type : bit
Open file DONE
Parse file DONE
bitstream header infos
date: 2024/05/22
design_name: ledblink.ncd
hour: 10:26:28
part_name: 6slx25tcsg324
toolVersion: 0xFFFFFFFF
userID: 0xFFFFFFFF
Can't program SPI flash: missing device-package information

I did some more research and I figured out I could add the --fpga-part flag, and ran the same, but I still got an error:

❯ ./openFPGALoader -c usb-blaster --fpga-part xc6slx9csg324 -f ../../fpgaconf/captures/ledblink.bit --verbose
empty
write to flash
found 1 devices
index 0:
	idcode 0x24024093
	manufacturer xilinx
	family spartan6
	model  xc6slx25T
	irlength 6
File type : bit
Open file DONE
Parse file DONE
bitstream header infos
date: 2024/05/22
design_name: ledblink.ncd
hour: 10:26:28
part_name: 6slx25tcsg324
toolVersion: 0xFFFFFFFF
userID: 0xFFFFFFFF
use: /home/srikar/projects/dragon-l/openFPGALoader/spiOverJtag/spiOverJtag_xc6slx9csg324.bit.gz
load program
Load SRAM: [==================================================] 100.00%
Done
Shift IR 11
ir: 1 isc_done 0 isc_ena 0 init 1 done 0
Register raw value: 0x0
CRC Error      No CRC error
Part Secured   0
MMCM lock      0
DCI match      0
EOS            0
GTS CFG B      0
GWE            0
GHIGH B        0
MODE           0
INIT Complete  0
INIT B         0
Release Done   0
Done           0
ID Error       No ID error
DEC Error      0
XADC Over temp 0
STARTUP State  0
Reserved       0
BUS Width      x1
Reserved       0
cd 96 76 80 read cd967680
Detail: 
Jedec ID          : cd
memory type       : 96
memory capacity   : 76
RDSR : 68
WIP  : 0
WEL  : 0
BP   : a
TB   : 1
SRWD : 0
flash chip unknown: use basic protection detection
unlock blocks
Error: block protection is set
       can't unlock without --unprotect-flash

Since the error mentioned the flag --uprotect-flash, I tried that too, but still failed with a timeout error:

❯ ./openFPGALoader -c usb-blaster --fpga-part xc6slx9csg324 -f ../../fpgaconf/captures/ledblink.bit --unprotect-flash --verbose 
empty
write to flash
found 1 devices
index 0:
	idcode 0x24024093
	manufacturer xilinx
	family spartan6
	model  xc6slx25T
	irlength 6
File type : bit
Open file DONE
Parse file DONE
bitstream header infos
date: 2024/05/22
design_name: ledblink.ncd
hour: 10:26:28
part_name: 6slx25tcsg324
toolVersion: 0xFFFFFFFF
userID: 0xFFFFFFFF
use: /home/srikar/projects/dragon-l/openFPGALoader/spiOverJtag/spiOverJtag_xc6slx9csg324.bit.gz
load program
Load SRAM: [==================================================] 100.00%
Done
Shift IR 11
ir: 1 isc_done 0 isc_ena 0 init 1 done 0
Register raw value: 0x0
CRC Error      No CRC error
Part Secured   0
MMCM lock      0
DCI match      0
EOS            0
GTS CFG B      0
GWE            0
GHIGH B        0
MODE           0
INIT Complete  0
INIT B         0
Release Done   0
Done           0
ID Error       No ID error
DEC Error      0
XADC Over temp 0
STARTUP State  0
Reserved       0
BUS Width      x1
Reserved       0
ad b4 40 80 read adb44080
Detail: 
Jedec ID          : ad
memory type       : b4
memory capacity   : 40
RDSR : 2c
WIP  : 0
WEL  : 0
BP   : 3
TB   : 1
SRWD : 0
flash chip unknown: use basic protection detection
unlock blocks
timeout: ff ff ff
ff
wait: Error

I've double checked the pinout for the SPI PROM and it should be fine. I am not sure what I'm missing here, and I hope to make some changes and add official support to this board.

The flash chip in use is an 25P80VP by STMicroelectronics. I believe this is the datasheet for the same.

I'm not sure what I'm missing here, hope to find some insights and direction for the same. Thanks!