Altera DE2-70 User manual

Altera DE2-70 Board
Version 1.01 Copyright © 2007 Terasic Technologies

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CONTENTS
Chapter 1 DE2-70 Package ...............................................................................................................1
1.1 Package Contents.................................................................................................................1
1.2 The DE2-70 Board Assembly..............................................................................................2
1.3 Getting Help.........................................................................................................................3
Chapter 2Altera DE2-70 Board.......................................................................................................4
2.1 Layout and Components ......................................................................................................4
2.2 Block Diagram of the DE2-70 Board ..................................................................................5
2.3 Power-up the DE2-70 Board................................................................................................9
Chapter 3 DE2-70 Control Panel....................................................................................................11
3.1 Control Panel Setup ...........................................................................................................11
3.2 Controlling the LEDs, 7-Segment Displays and LCD Display .........................................13
3.3 Switches and Buttons.........................................................................................................15
3.4 SDRAM/SSRAM/Flash Controller and Programmer........................................................16
3.5 USB Monitoring.................................................................................................................18
3.6 PS2 Device.........................................................................................................................19
3.7 SD CARD ..........................................................................................................................20
3.8 Audio Playing and Recording............................................................................................21
3.9 Overall Structure of the DE2-70 Control Panel.................................................................23
Chapter 4 DE2-70 Video Utility......................................................................................................25
4.1 Video Utility Setup.............................................................................................................25
4.2 VGA Display......................................................................................................................26
4.3 Video Capture ....................................................................................................................27
4.4 Overall Structure of the DE2-70 Video Utility..................................................................28
Chapter 5 Using the DE2-70 Board................................................................................................30
5.1 Configuring the Cyclone II FPGA.....................................................................................30
5.2 Using the LEDs and Switches............................................................................................32
5.3 Using the 7-segment Displays............................................................................................36
5.4 Clock Circuitry...................................................................................................................38
5.5 Using the LCD Module......................................................................................................40
5.6 Using the Expansion Header..............................................................................................41
5.7 Using VGA ........................................................................................................................45
5.8 Using the 24-bit Audio CODEC ........................................................................................48
5.9 RS-232 Serial Port .............................................................................................................49
5.10 PS/2 Serial Port..................................................................................................................49
5.11 Fast Ethernet Network Controller......................................................................................50

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5.12 TV Decoder........................................................................................................................52
5.13 Implementing a TV Encoder..............................................................................................54
5.14 Using USB Host and Device..............................................................................................55
5.15 Using IrDA.........................................................................................................................56
5.16 Using SDRAM/SRAM/Flash.............................................................................................57
Chapter 6 Examples ofAdvanced Demonstrations ......................................................................66
6.1 DE2-70 Factory Configuration ..........................................................................................66
6.2 TV Box Demonstration......................................................................................................67
6.3 TV Box Picture in Picture (PIP) Demonstration................................................................69
6.4 USB Paintbrush..................................................................................................................72
6.5 USB Device........................................................................................................................74
6.6 A Karaoke Machine ...........................................................................................................76
6.7 Ethernet Packet Sending/Receiving...................................................................................78
6.8 SD Card Music Player........................................................................................................80
6.9 Music Synthesizer Demonstration.....................................................................................83
6.10 Audio Recording and Playing............................................................................................87
Chapter 7 Appendix.........................................................................................................................90
7.1 Revision History ................................................................................................................90
7.2 Copyright Statement ..........................................................................................................90

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Chapter 1
DE2-70 Package
The DE2-70 package contains all components needed to use the DE2-70 board in conjunction with
a computer that runs the Microsoft Windows software.
1.1 Package Contents
Figure 1.1 shows a photograph of the DE2-70 package.
Figure 1.1. The DE2-70 package contents.

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The DE2-70 package includes:
•The DE2-70 board
•USB Cable for FPGA programming and control
•DE2-70 System CD containing the DE2-70 documentation and supporting materials,
including the User Manual, the Control Panel utility, reference designs and demonstrations,
device datasheets, tutorials, and a set of laboratory exercises
•CD-ROMs containing Altera’s Quartus®II Web Edition and the Nios®II Embedded Design
Suit Evaluation Edition software.
•Bag of six rubber (silicon) covers for the DE2-70 board stands. The bag also contains some
extender pins, which can be used to facilitate easier probing with testing equipment of the
board’s I/O expansion headers
•Clear plastic cover for the board
•12V DC wall-mount power supply
1.2 The DE2-70 Board Assembly
To assemble the included stands for the DE2-70 board:
•Assemble a rubber (silicon) cover, as shown in Figure 1.2, for each of the six copper stands
on the DE2-70 board
•The clear plastic cover provides extra protection, and is mounted over the top of the board
by using additional stands and screws
Figure 1.2. The feet for the DE2-70 board.

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1.3 Getting Help
Here are the addresses where you can get help if you encounter problems:
•Altera Corporation
101 Innovation Drive
San Jose, California, 95134 USA
Email: [email protected]
•Terasic Technologies
No. 356, Sec. 1, Fusing E. Rd.
Jhubei City, HsinChu County, Taiwan, 302
Email: [email protected]
Web: DE2-70.terasic.com

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Chapter 2
Altera DE2-70 Board
This chapter presents the features and design characteristics of the DE2-70 board.
2.1 Layout and Components
A photograph of the DE2-70 board is shown in Figure 2.1. It depicts the layout of the board and
indicates the location of the connectors and key components.
TV Decoder (NTSC/PAL)
50Mhz Oscillator
Expansion Header 2
SMA Extemal Clock
IrDA Transceiver
8Mbyte Flash Memory
8 Green LEDs
18 Toggle Switches
7-Segment Displays
16x2 LCD Module
Altera USB Blaster
Controller chipset
Altera EPCS16
Configuration Device
USB Host/Slave
Controller
Audio CODEC
Power ON/OFF Switch
12V DC Power Supply
Connector
RUN/PROG Switch for
JTAG/AS Modes
18 Red LEDs
Expansion Header 1
Altera Cyclone II
FPGA with 70K LEs
VGA 10-bit DAC
28Mhz Oscillator 2Mbyte SSRAM32Mbyte SDRAMx2 4 Push-button Switches
Ethernet 10/100M Controller
TV Decoder (NTSC/PAL) X2
PS2 Port
RS-232 Port
Ethernet 10/100M Port
USB Host Port
USB Device Port
USB Blaster Port
VGA Out
Video In 2Video In 1
Line In
Mic in Line Out
Lock
SD Card Slot
(SD Card Not Included)
Figure 2.1. The DE2-70 board.
The DE2-70 board has many features that allow the user to implement a wide range of designed
circuits, from simple circuits to various multimedia projects.
The following hardware is provided on the DE2-70 board:
•Altera Cyclone®II 2C70 FPGA device
•Altera Serial Configuration device - EPCS16
•USB Blaster (on board) for programming and user API control; both JTAG and Active Serial

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(AS) programming modes are supported
•2-Mbyte SSRAM
•Two 32-Mbyte SDRAM
•8-Mbyte Flash memory
•SD Card socket
•4 pushbutton switches
•18 toggle switches
•18 red user LEDs
•9 green user LEDs
•50-MHz oscillator and 28.63-MHz oscillator for clock sources
•24-bit CD-quality audio CODEC with line-in, line-out, and microphone-in jacks
•VGA DAC (10-bit high-speed triple DACs) with VGA-out connector
•2 TV Decoder (NTSC/PAL/SECAM) and TV-in connector
•10/100 Ethernet Controller with a connector
•USB Host/Slave Controller with USB type A and type B connectors
•RS-232 transceiver and 9-pin connector
•PS/2 mouse/keyboard connector
•IrDA transceiver
•1 SMA connector
•Two 40-pin Expansion Headers with diode protection
In addition to these hardware features, the DE2-70 board has software support for standard I/O
interfaces and a control panel facility for accessing various components. Also, software is provided
for a number of demonstrations that illustrate the advanced capabilities of the DE2-70 board.
In order to use the DE2-70 board, the user has to be familiar with the Quartus II software. The
necessary knowledge can be acquired by reading the tutorials Getting Started with Altera’s DE2-70
Board and Quartus II Introduction (which exists in three versions based on the design entry method
used, namely Verilog, VHDL or schematic entry). These tutorials are provided in the directory
DE2_70_tutorials on the DE2-70 System CD-ROM that accompanies the DE2-70 board and can
also be found on Altera’s DE2-70 web pages.
2.2 Block Diagram of the DE2-70 Board
Figure 2.2 gives the block diagram of the DE2-70 board. To provide maximum flexibility for the
user, all connections are made through the Cyclone II FPGA device. Thus, the user can configure
the FPGA to implement any system design.

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Figure 2.2. Block diagram of the DE2-70 board.
Following is more detailed information about the blocks in Figure 2.2:
Cyclone II 2C70 FPGA
•68,416 LEs
•250 M4K RAM blocks
•1,152,000 total RAM bits
•150 embedded multipliers
•4 PLLs
•622 user I/O pins
•FineLine BGA896-pin package
Serial Configuration device and USB Blaster circuit
•Altera’s EPCS16 Serial Configuration device
•On-board USB Blaster for programming and user API control
•JTAG and AS programming modes are supported

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SSRAM
•2-Mbyte standard synchronous SRAM
•Organized as 512K x 36 bits
•Accessible as memory for the Nios II processor and by the DE2-70 Control Panel
SDRAM
•Two 32-Mbyte Single Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic RAM memory chips
•Organized as 4M x 16 bits x 4 banks
•Accessible as memory for the Nios II processor and by the DE2-70 Control Panel
Flash memory
•8-Mbyte NOR Flash memory
•Support both byte and word mode access
•Accessible as memory for the Nios II processor and by the DE2-70 Control Panel
SD card socket
•Provides SPI and 1-bit SD mode for SD Card access
•Accessible as memory for the Nios II processor with the DE2-70 SD Card Driver
Pushbutton switches
•4 pushbutton switches
•Debounced by a Schmitt trigger circuit
•Normally high; generates one active-low pulse when the switch is pressed
Toggle switches
•18 toggle switches for user inputs
•A switch causes logic 0 when in the DOWN (closest to the edge of the DE2-70 board)
position and logic 1 when in the UP position
Clock inputs
•50-MHz oscillator
•28.63-MHz oscillator
•SMA external clock input

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Audio CODEC
•Wolfson WM8731 24-bit sigma-delta audio CODEC
•Line-level input, line-level output, and microphone input jacks
•Sampling frequency: 8 to 96 KHz
•Applications for MP3 players and recorders, PDAs, smart phones, voice recorders, etc.
VGAoutput
•Uses the ADV7123 240-MHz triple 10-bit high-speed video DAC
•With 15-pin high-density D-sub connector
•Supports up to 1600 x 1200 at 100-Hz refresh rate
•Can be used with the Cyclone II FPGA to implement a high-performance TV Encoder
NTSC/PAL/ SECAM TV decoder circuit
•Uses two ADV7180 Multi-format SDTV Video Decoders
•Supports worldwide NTSC/PAL/SECAM color demodulation
•One 10-bit ADC, 4X over-sampling for CVBS
•Supports Composite Video (CVBS) RCA jack input
•Supports digital output formats : 8-bit ITU-R BT.656 YCrCb 4:2:2 output + HS, VS, and
FIELD
•Applications: DVD recorders, LCD TV, Set-top boxes, Digital TV, Portable video devices,
and TV PIP (picture in picture) display.
10/100 Ethernet controller
•Integrated MAC and PHY with a general processor interface
•Supports 100Base-T and 10Base-T applications
•Supports full-duplex operation at 10 Mb/s and 100 Mb/s, with auto-MDIX
•Fully compliant with the IEEE 802.3u Specification
•Supports IP/TCP/UDP checksum generation and checking
•Supports back-pressure mode for half-duplex mode flow control
USB Host/Slave controller
•Complies fully with Universal Serial Bus Specification Rev. 2.0
•Supports data transfer at full-speed and low-speed
•Supports both USB host and device
•Two USB ports (one type A for a host and one type B for a device)
•Provides a high-speed parallel interface to most available processors; supports Nios II with a
Terasic driver
•Supports Programmed I/O (PIO) and Direct Memory Access (DMA)

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Serial ports
•One RS-232 port
•One PS/2 port
•DB-9 serial connector for the RS-232 port
•PS/2 connector for connecting a PS2 mouse or keyboard to the DE2-70 board
IrDA transceiver
•Contains a 115.2-kb/s infrared transceiver
•32 mA LED drive current
•Integrated EMI shield
•IEC825-1 Class 1 eye safe
•Edge detection input
Two 40-pin expansion headers
•72 Cyclone II I/O pins, as well as 8 power and ground lines, are brought out to two 40-pin
expansion connectors
•40-pin header is designed to accept a standard 40-pin ribbon cable used for IDE hard drives
•Diode and resistor protection is provided
2.3 Power-up the DE2-70 Board
The DE2-70 board comes with a preloaded configuration bit stream to demonstrate some features of
the board. This bit stream also allows users to see quickly if the board is working properly. To
power-up the board perform the following steps:
1. Connect the provided USB cable from the host computer to the USB Blaster connector on
the DE2-70 board. For communication between the host and the DE2-70 board, it is
necessary to install the Altera USB Blaster driver software. If this driver is not already
installed on the host computer, it can be installed as explained in the tutorial Getting
Started with Altera's DE2-70 Board.This tutorial is available in the directory
DE2_70_tutorials on the DE2-70 System CD-ROM.
2. Connect the 12V adapter to the DE2-70 board
3. Connect a VGAmonitor to the VGA port on the DE2-70 board
4. Connect your headset to the Line-out audio port on the DE2-70 board
5. Turn the RUN/PROG switch on the left edge of the DE2-70 board to RUN position; the
PROG position is used only for the AS Mode programming
6. Turn the power on by pressing the ON/OFF switch on the DE2-70 board

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At this point you should observe the following:
•All user LEDs are flashing
•All 7-segment displays are cycling through the numbers 0 to F
•The LCD display shows Welcome to the Altera DE2-70
•The VGAmonitor displays the image shown in Figure 2.3.
•Set the toggle switch SW17 to the DOWN position; you should hear a 1-kHz sound
•Set the toggle switch SW17 to the UP position and connect the output of an audio player to
the Line-in connector on the DE2-70 board; on your headset you should hear the music
played from the audio player (MP3, PC, iPod, or the like)
•You can also connect a microphone to the Microphone-in connector on the DE2-70 board;
your voice will be mixed with the music played from the audio player
Figure 2.3. The default VGAoutput pattern.

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Chapter 3
DE2-70 Control Panel
The DE2-70 board comes with a Control Panel facility that allows users to access various
components on the board from a host computer. The host computer communicates with the board
through an USB connection. The facility can be used to verify the functionality of components on
the board or be used as a debug tool while developing RTL code.
This chapter first presents some basic functions of the Control Panel, then describes its structure in
block diagram form, and finally describes its capabilities.
.
3.1 Control Panel Setup
The Control Panel Software Utility is located in the “DE2_70_control_pane/SW” folder in the
DE2-70 System CD-ROM. To install it, just copy the whole folder to your host computer. Launch
the control panel by executing the “DE2_70_Control_Panel.exe”.
Specific control codes should be downloaded to your FPGA board before the control panel can
request it to perform required tasks. The control codes include one .sof file and one .elf file. To
download the codes, just click the “Download Code” button on the program. The program will call
Quartus II and Nios II tools to download the control codes to the FPGA board through
USB-Blaster[USB-0] connection. The .sof file is downloaded to FPGA. The .elf file is downloaded
to either SDRAM-U2 or SSRAM, according to the user option.
To activate the Control Panel, perform the following steps:
1. Make sure Quartus II and NIOS II are installed successfully on your PC.
2. Connect the supplied USB cable to the USB Blaster port, connect the 12V power supply,
and turn the power switch ON
3. Set the RUN/PROG switch to the RUN position
4. Start the executable DE2_70_control_panel.exe on the host computer. The Control Panel
user interface shown in Figure 3.1 will appear.
5. Select the target memory, SDRAM-U2 or SSRAM, on the control panel. Note. The .elf file
will be downloaded to the target memory and the memory will be read-only in later
memory access operation.
6. Click Download Code button. Note, the Control Panel will occupy the USB port until you

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close that port; you cannot use Quartus II to download a configuration file into the FPGA
until you close the USB port.
7. The Control Panel is now ready for use; experiment by setting the value of some LEDs
display and observing the result on the DE2-70 board.
Figure 3.1. The DE2-70 Control Panel.
The concept of the DE2-70 Control Panel is illustrated in Figure 3.2. The “Control Codes” that
performs the control functions is implemented in the FPGA board. It communicates with the
Control Panel window, which is active on the host computer, via the USB Blaster link. The
graphical interface is used to issue commands to the control codes. It handles all requests and
performs data transfers between the computer and the DE2-70 board.

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7-SEG Display
16x2
LCD
LEDsLEDs
PS/2
SDRAM
Flash
SSRAM
SD Card
Soket
USB
Blaster
USB
Device
Control
Codes
Figure 3.2. The DE2-70 Control Panel concept.
The DE2-70 Control Panel can be used to light up LEDs, change the values displayed on 7-segment
and LCD displays, monitor buttons/switches status, read/write the SDRAM, SSRAM and Flash
Memory, monitor the status of an USB mouse, read data from a PS/2 keyboard, and read SD-CARD
specification information. The feature of reading/writing a word or an entire file from/to the Flash
Memory allows the user to develop multimedia applications (Flash Audio Player, Flash Picture
Viewer) without worrying about how to build a Memory Programmer.
3.2 Controlling the LEDs, 7-Segment Displays and LCD Display
A simple function of the Control Panel is to allow setting the values displayed on LEDs, 7-segment
displays, and the LCD character display.
Choosing the LED tab leads to the window in Figure 3.3. Here, you can directly turn the individual
LEDs on or off by selecting them or click “Light All” or “Unlight All”.

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Figure 3.3. Controlling LEDs.
Choosing the 7-SEG tab leads to the window in Figure 3.4. In the tab sheet, directly use the
Up-Down control and Dot Check box to specified desired patterns, the 7-SEG patterns on the board
will be updated immediately.
Figure 3.4. Controlling 7-SEG display.

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Choosing the LCD tab leads to the window in Figure 3.5. Text can be written to the LCD display by
typing it in the LCD box and pressing the Set button.
Figure 3.5. Controlling LEDs and the LCD display.
The ability to set arbitrary values into simple display devices is not needed in typical design
activities. However, it gives the user a simple mechanism for verifying that these devices are
functioning correctly in case a malfunction is suspected. Thus, it can be used for troubleshooting
purposes.
3.3 Switches and Buttons
Choosing the Button tab leads to the window in Figure 3.6. The function is designed to monitor the
status of switches and buttons in real time and show the status in a graphical user interface. It can be
used to verify the functionality of the switches and buttons.
Press the Start button to start button/switch status monitoring process, and button caption is
changed from Start to Stop. In the monitoring process, the status of buttons and switches on the
board is shown in the GUI window and updated in real time. Press Stop to end the monitoring
process.

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Figure 3.6. Monitoring switches and buttons.
The ability to check the status of button and switch is not needed in typical design activities.
However, it provides users a simple mechanism for verifying if the buttons and switches are
functioning correctly. Thus, it can be used for troubleshooting purposes.
3.4 SDRAM/SSRAM/Flash Controller and Programmer
The Control Panel can be used to write/read data to/from the SDRAM, SSRAM, and FLASH chips
on the DE2-70 board. We will describe how the SDRAM-U1 may be accessed; the same approach
is used to access the SDRAM-U2, SRAM, and FLASH. Click on the Memory tab and select
“SDRAM-U1” to reach the window in Figure 3.7. Please note the target memory chosen for
storing .elf file is read-only. Also, please erase the flash before writing data to it.

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Figure 3.7. Accessing the SDRAM-U1.
A 16-bit word can be written into the SDRAM by entering the address of the desired location,
specifying the data to be written, and pressing the Write button. Contents of the location can be
read by pressing the Read button. Figure 3.7 depicts the result of writing the hexadecimal value
06CA into location 200, followed by reading the same location.
The Sequential Write function of the Control Panel is used to write the contents of a file into the
SDRAM as follows:
1. Specify the starting address in the Address box.
2. Specify the number of bytes to be written in the Length box. If the entire file is to be
loaded, then a checkmark may be placed in the File Length box instead of giving the
number of bytes.
3. To initiate the writing of data, click on the Write a File to Memory button.
4. When the Control Panel responds with the standard Windows dialog box asking for the
source file, specify the desired file in the usual manner.
The Control Panel also supports loading files with a .hex extension. Files with a .hex extension are
ASCII text files that specify memory values using ASCII characters to represent hexadecimal
values. For example, a file containing the line
0123456789ABCDEF
defines four 8-bit values: 01, 23, 45, 67, 89, AB, CD, EF. These values will be loaded consecutively