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 CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 ABOUT THIS GUIDE .............................................................................................................................. 3

CHAPTER 2 SOFTWARE INSTALLATION ................................................................................................................ 4

2.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................... 4

2.2 INSTALLING QUARTUS II SOFTWARE............................................................................................................................ 4
2.3 INSTALLING INTEL SOC EMBEDDED DESIGN SUITE..................................................................................................... 7

CHAPTER 3 DEVELOPMENT BOARD SETUP ........................................................................................................ 8

3.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................... 8

3.2 DEFAULT MSEL SETTINGS .......................................................................................................................................... 8
3.3 USB AND POWER CABLES........................................................................................................................................... 8
3.4 POWERING UP THE DE1-SOC BOARD .......................................................................................................................... 9

CHAPTER 4 PERFORMING A FPGA SYSTEM TEST........................................................................................... 10

4.1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................................... 10

4.2 INSTALLING THE USB-BLASTER II DRIVER ............................................................................................................... 10
4.3 DOWNLOADING A FPGA SRAM OBJECT FILE .......................................................................................................... 11

CHAPTER 5 RUNNING LINUX ON THE DE1-SOC BOARD ................................................................................ 19

5.1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................................... 19

5.2 CREATING A MICROSD CARD IMAGE ......................................................................................................................... 19
5.3 SETTING UP UART TERMINAL .................................................................................................................................. 20
5.4 RUNNING LINUX ON DE1-SOC BOARD ..................................................................................................................... 23

CHAPTER 6 RUNNING LXDE ON THE DE1-SOC BOARD .................................................................................. 25

6.1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................................... 25

6.2 MAKING LXDE BOOT SD CARD............................................................................................................................... 26
6.3 LXDE SETTING UP PROCEDURES ............................................................................................................................. 26

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ....................................................................................................................................... 29

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 Chapter 1

About this Guide

The DE1-SoC Getting Started Guide contains a quick overview of the hardware and software setup
including step-by-step procedures from installing the necessary software tools to using the DE1-SoC
board. The main topics that this guide covers are listed below:
 Software Installation: Installing Quartus II and SoC EDS
 Development Board Setup: Powering on the DE1-SoC
 Perform FPGA System Test: Downloading a FPGA SRAM Object File (.sof)
 Running Linux on DE1-SoC Board

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 Chapter 2

Software Installation

2.1 Introduction
This section explains how to install the following software:

 Intel Quartus II software

 Intel SoC Embedded Design Suite

Note: 64-bit OS required

2.2 Installing Quar tus II software

The Intel Complete Design Suite provides the necessary tools used for developing hardware and
software solutions for Intel FPGAs. The Quartus II software is the primary FPGA development tool
used to create reference designs along with the Nios II soft-core embedded processor integrated
development environment

User can download the latest software from http://url.terasic.com/quartus_download

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 If you choose to install the Standard Edition, please note that a purchased license will be
required. Please go to the following link for more information:
https://www.Intel.com/support/support-resources/download/licensing.html

 Select the latest software version for Subscription Edition or web Edition will into "myIntel
Account Sign-In" page

 Use your existing login, or get a one-time Access.

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 Download files from subscription or web edition page. You must download the Quartus II
Software (includes Nios II EDS) and Cyclone V device support (includes all variations).

 After the file is downloaded on the computer, select the *.exe file, and install the software.
All of the defaults are to be used.

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 2.3 Installing Intel SoC Embedded Design Suite

The Intel SoC Embedded Design Suite (EDS) contains development tools, utility programs, run-time
software, and application examples to enable embedded development on the Intel SoC hardware
platform. User can use the Intel SoC EDS to develop firmware and application software.
Users can download the software from the Intel webpage: http://fpgasoftware.intel.com/soceds/

Intel® SoC FPGA Embedded Development Suite (SoC EDS) is available in two editions: Standard
Edition and Pro Edition. Both Editions include ARM Development Studio 5 (DS-5) for Intel SoC
FPGAs (license-managed). Please refer to the link list in below to get the comparison chart to
compare both versions. After downloading the software, follow the corresponding guide in License
Activation to activate your license.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/software/programmable/soc-eds/getting-started.html

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 Chapter 3

Development Board Setup

3.1 Introduction
The instructions in this section explain how to set up the DE1-SoC development board. The
following pictures show the board overview of DE1-SoC board.

3.2 Default MSEL Settings

The FPGA Configuration Mode Switch (MSEL) shown in Figure 3-1 is by default set to 10010
(MSEL[4:0] = 10010). The setting corresponds to FPGA working in Asx4 mode.

Figure 3-1 FPGA Configuration Mode Switch set in Asx4 Mode

3.3 USB and Power Cables

Cable connections are shown in Figure 3-2 as below:

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 Figure 3-2 USB and Power Cables

3.4 Powering up the DE1-SoC Board

To power-up the board, perform the following steps below:

1. Connect the provided power cord to the power supply and plug the cord into a power outlet
(verify the voltage supplied is the same as the specification on the power supply).

2. Connect the supplied DE1-SoC power adapter to the power connector (J14) on the DE1-SoC
board. Press the power button (SW11). At this point, you should see the 12V indicator LED (D14)
turned on.

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 Chapter 4

Performing a FPGA System Test

4.1 Introduction
This chapter shows how to install the USB-Blaster II driver and download a FPGA SRAM Object
(.sof) file to your FPGA board.

4.2 Installing the USB-Blaster II Driver

The steps below outline how to install the USB-Blaster II driver.
2. Connect your computer to the development board by plugging the USB cable into the USB
connector (J13) of DE1-SoC (connection shown in Figure 3-2)
3. Power up the board and open the device manager in Windows. You will find an unknown device.

4. Select the unknown device to update the driver software. The driver file is in the \<Quartus II

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 installation directory>\drivers\ usb-blaster-ii directory.
5. After the driver is installed correctly, the device is recognized as Intel USB-Blaster II as shown in
following picture.

4.3 Downloading a FPGA SRAM Object File

The Quartus II Programmer is used to configure the FPGA with a specific .sof file. Before
configuring the FPGA, ensure that the Quartus II software and the USB-Blaster II driver are installed
on the host computer.

If users would like to program their SRAM Object File (.sof) into the Cyclone V SOC FPGA device
on the DE1-SoC board, There are two devices (FPGA and HPS) on the JTAG Chain, the configure
flow is different from the one used with DE1. The following shows the programming flow with
JTAG mode step by step.

1. Make sure the JTAG switch SW17 is set to FPGA in chain: SW17.1=1; SW17.2=0.

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2. Connect your computer to the DE1-SoC board by plugging the USB cable into the USB
connector (J13) of DE1-SoC and power up the board (details shown in Chapter 3)
3. Open the Quartus II software and select Tools > Programmer. The Programmer window will
appear.

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4. Click Hardware Setup.
5. If DE-SoC [USB-1] does not appear under Currently Selected Hardware, select that option
and click Close as shown below.

If the USB-Blaster II does not appear under hardware options list, please confirm if the USB-Blaster
II driver has been correctly installed, and the USB cable has been properly connected between the
DE1-SoC board and host computer.
6. Click “Auto Detect”.

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7. Select the device associated with the board

8. FPGA and HPS devices are all show in the jtag chain.

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9. Click the FPGA device, right click mouse to popup the menu, and then select .sof file for FPGA

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10. Select \<CD directory>\Demonstration\FPGA\my_first_fpga\my_first_fpga.sof.

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11. Click “Program/Configure” check box, and then click “Start” button to download .sof file into
FPGA

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 Chapter 5

Running Linux on the DE1-SoC board

5.1 Introduction
This chapter demonstrates how to create a Micro SD card image, set up a UART Terminal, and run
Linux on DE1-SoC Board. User can download the latest SD Card image file from Terasic’s website
(Choose Linux Console in Linux BSP (Board Support Package)): http://cd_de1-soc.terasic.com.

5.2 Creating a microSD Car d Image

To program a microSD card Linux image you can use a free tool called Win32DiskImager.exe from
http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/ on a Windows machine.

 MicroSD Specification
 Capacity: 4GB minimum
 Speed: Class 4 (at least)

 Pre-built SD Card Image

The pre-built binaries are delivered as an archive named DE1_SoC_SD.img. This SD card image
file contains all the items that are needed to run Linux on DE1-SoC board. (You can download the
compressed file from the link: http://www.terasic.com/downloads/cd-rom/de1-soc/linux_BSP/DE1_SoC_SD.zip.
And extract file to get the image file after downloading)

 SPL Pre-loader
 U-boot
 Device Tree Blob
 Linux Kernel
 Linux Root File system

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 The SD card image file needs to be programmed to a microSD card before it can be used.
The steps below present how to create microSD card on a windows machine using
Win32DiskImager.exe.
1. Connect the microSD card to a Windows PC
2. Execute Win32DiskImager.exe
3. Select the image file for microSD card
4. Select the microSD card device

5. Click “write” to start writing the image file to the microSD card. Wait until the image is
written successfully.

5.3 Setting Up UART Ter minal

This section presents how to install the drivers for the USB to UART chip on the DE1-SoC board
and set up the UART terminal on your host PC. The DE1-SoC board communicates with the PC
through the micro USB connector J4.You should install the USB to UART driver and configure the
UART terminal before you run Linux on the board.

 Installing the Driver

This section presents how to install the drivers for USB to UART communication. The necessary
steps on Windows are:
1. Connect your computer to the development board by plugging the USB cable into the micro
USB connector (J4) of DE1-SoC (connection shown in Figure 3-2)

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 2. Power on the board then open the computer device manager in Windows. You will find an
unrecognized Enhanced Com Port (For HPS) and Standard Com Port (For FPGA).

Select the CP2105 USB UART to update the driver software. The driver can be downloaded from
https://www.silabs.com/developers/usb-to-uart-bridge-vcp-drivers.

3. After the driver has been installed correctly, two USB Serial Ports are recognized: such as
COM3 and COM4 (Open the Device Manager to know which COM port assigned in your computer).
Note : Different Host may appear different com port number.

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 4. If user wants to communicate the HPS via com port, please remember the Enhanced COM
Port number. For FPGA application, please use the Standard COM port number.
5. Now you can power off the DE1-SoC board

 Configure UART terminal UART terminal spec:

 115200 baud rate

 no parity
 1 stop bit
 no flow control settings

The following steps present how to configure a PuTTY terminal window (can be downloaded from
the link: http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/latest/x86/putty.exe)
1. Open putty.exe, click Serial go to a serial configure interface.
2. Configure the window like the flowing picture and click save button to save the

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 configuration.

5.4 Running Linux on DE1-SoC board

This section presents how to run the pre-built Linux images on the DE1-SoC board. You can run the
Linux by following the steps below:
1. Insert the microSD card with the pre-built image into the board (See Section 5.2 to prepare a
microSD card)
2. Make sure HPS is boot from SD card(BOOTSEL[2:0]=101,default settings)(Skip this step if
user didn’t change the BOOTSEL setting)
3. Press down the SW11 button to Power up the board (See Chapter 3 for details)
4. Open putty.exe, select the saved configuration DE1-SoC_usb and click open button.
5. After a successful boot, the Linux will ask for the login name. Type root and press Enter to
login to the system.

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 Chapter 6

Running LXDE on the DE1-SoC board

6.1 Introduction
This chapter presents how to boot LXDE Desktop on DE1-SOC board. LXDE is short for
Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment. It is an extremely fast-performing and energy-saving
desktop environment. LXDE uses less CPU and less RAM than other desktop environments. For
further information about LXDE, you can visit the website: http://LXDE.org.

Figure 6-1 shows the hardware setup for booting LXDE Desktop on DE1-SOC. The requirement
peripherals are list below:

 A VGA monitor
 A USB keyboard
 A USB mouse
 A Micro SD with minimum 8GB capacity

Figure 6-1 Hardware setting for LXDE on DE1-SOC board

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6.2 Making LXDE Boot SD Card
To boot LXDE on DE1-SOC board user should make the boot SD card yourself. At first, user should
get the SD image from the link:
http://www.terasic.com/downloads/cd-rom/de1-soc/linux_BSP/DE1_SoC_LXDE_SD.zip.
The file you download is compressed in .zip format, so you should decompress the file after
downloading. Then you should write the image file to your boot SD card. You can refer to the
Section 5.2 for how to write the SD image in you SD card.

6.3 LXDE Setting Up Procedures

 Make sure the MSEL[4:0] is set to “00000” for HPS to configure FPGA (See Figure 6-2).

Figure 6-2 MSEL Setting

 Connect your USB mouse and keyboard to the USB connector (J7 and J8) on DE1-SoC board.
Connect your VGA monitor to the VGA connector (J9).
 Insert the micro SD card with LXDE image into the DE1-SoC board.
 Power up the DE1-SoC board.
 You should find two penguins show on the VGA monitor when the Linux is booting.

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 After a while, the login interface shows on the monitor as shown in Figure 6-3. You should
choose more and type “root” when it requires your user name and press “Enter” on your USB
keyboard and type “terasic” for password and press “Enter”. Now you should login in to the
LXDE and try to get familiar with the GUI system. Figure 6-4 shows a mp4 video playing in
LXDE.

Figure 6-3 Login Interface of LXDE

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 Figure 6-4 Using LXDE to Play a Video

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 Additional Information

Getting Help

Here are the addresses where you can get help if you encounter problems:

 Terasic Technologies
9F., No.176, Sec.2, Gongdao 5th Rd, East Dist, Hsinchu City, 30070. Taiwan, 30070
Email: support@terasic.com
46H

Web: www.terasic.com
47H

Revision History
Date Version Changes
2014.01.03 V1.0 First Version
2014.01.12 V1.1 Update ch5 for modify board rate
2016.08.24 V1.2 Update Quartus information to V16.0
2019.04.11 V1.3 Modify software download link
2021.04.10 V1.4 Modify UART part

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