EP4SE360F35I4 Datasheet, PDF (357/432 Pages) Altera Corporation – This section provides a complete overview of all features relating to the Stratix IV device family, which is the most architecturlly advanced

Chapter 10: Configuration, Design Security, and Remote System Upgrades in Stratix IV Devices
Fast Active Serial Configuration (Serial Configuration Devices)
10–21
1 While you can cascade Stratix IV devices, you cannot cascade or chain together serial
configuration devices.
If the configuration bitstream size exceeds the capacity of a serial configuration
device, you must select a larger configuration device and/or enable the compression
feature. When configuring multiple devices, the size of the bitstream is the sum of the
individual device configuration bitstreams.
A system may have multiple devices that contain the same configuration data. In
active serial chains, you can implement this by storing one copy of the .sof in the
serial configuration device. The same copy of the .sof configures the master Stratix IV
device and all remaining slave devices concurrently. All Stratix IV devices must be the
same density and package.
To configure four identical Stratix IV devices with the same .sof, set up the chain as
shown in Figure 10–8. The first device is the master device and its MSEL pins must be
set to select AS configuration. The other three slave devices are set up for concurrent
configuration and their MSEL pins must be set to select PS configuration. The nCE input
pins from the master and slave are connected to GND, and the DATA and DCLK pins
connect in parallel to all four devices. During the configuration cycle, the master
device reads its configuration data from the serial configuration device and transmits
the configuration data to all three slave devices, configuring all of them
simultaneously.
September 2012 Altera Corporation
Stratix IV Device Handbook
Volume 1