Chapter 9: Configuration, Design Security, and Remote System Upgrades in the Cyclone III Device Family
9–85
Remote System Upgrade
1
To ensure the successful reconfiguration between the pages, assert RU_nCONFIGsignal
for a minimum of 250 ns. This is equivalent to strobing the reconfiginput of the
ALTREMOTE_UPDATE megafunction high for a minimum of 250 ns.
If there is an error or reconfiguration trigger condition, the remote system upgrade
state machine directs the system to load a factory or application configuration (based
on mode and error condition) by setting the control register accordingly.
Table 9–30 lists the contents of the control register after such an event occurs for all
possible error or trigger conditions.
The remote system upgrade status register is updated by the dedicated error
monitoring circuitry after an error condition but before the factory configuration is
loaded.
Table 9–30. Control Register Contents After an Error or Reconfiguration Trigger Condition
Reconfiguration
Error/Trigger
Control Register Setting In
Remote Update
nCONFIGreset
nSTATUSerror
All bits are 0
All bits are 0
Update register
All bits are 0
All bits are 0
CORE triggered reconfiguration
CRC error
Wd time out
User Watchdog Timer
The user watchdog timer prevents a faulty application configuration from stalling the
device indefinitely. The system uses the timer to detect functional errors after an
application configuration is successfully loaded into the Cyclone III device family.
The user watchdog timer is a counter that counts down from the initial value loaded
into the remote system upgrade control register by the factory configuration. The
counter is 29-bits wide and has a maximum count value of 229. When specifying the
user watchdog timer value, specify only the most significant 12 bits. Remote system
upgrade circuitry appends 17’b1000 to form the 29 bits value for the watchdog timer.
The granularity of the timer setting is 217 cycles. The cycle time is based on the
frequency of the 10-MHz internal oscillator.
Table 9–31 lists the operating range of the 10-MHz internal oscillator.
Table 9–31. 10-MHz Internal Oscillator Specifications
Minimum
Typical
Maximum
Unit
5
6.5
10
MHz
The user watchdog timer begins counting after the application configuration enters
device user mode. This timer must be periodically reloaded or reset by the application
configuration before the timer expires by asserting RU_nRSTIMER. If the application
configuration does not reload the user watchdog timer before the count expires, a
time-out signal is generated by the remote system upgrade dedicated circuitry. The
time-out signal tells the remote system upgrade circuitry to set the user watchdog
timer status bit (Wd) in the remote system upgrade status register and reconfigures the
device by loading the factory configuration.
August 2012 Altera Corporation
Cyclone III Device Handbook
Volume 1
ALTERA [ ALTERA CORPORATION ]
