[microblaze-uclinux] Implementing SPI

["Alex D." <alex.diaz8@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello all,

I am a student currently tasked with implementing an
SPI to eventually talk with a DAC and possibly other hardware.  I'm
using a spartan-3e500-revD board and have managed to install petalinux
into flash and have it boot up properly.  I've also tested a few user
apps that interface with the DIP switches and LED's via the GPIO char
driver.

During the kernel setup I noticed that there is also a char driver
for the SPI, similar to the GPIO drivers I presume.  When I go into EDK
and ad an SPI IP core to the reference design I get a a few errors
however.  They crop up during the "Generate Bitstream" process.  I keep
gettings errors with the ucf file voltage levels for the pins
(MOSI,SS,SCK) as well as "PAD sharing" with the flash.  I've read that
some of the pins for the SPI are shared with other devices including
the flash.  Also, when I simply leave out the MISO pin, sometimes EDK
builds the hardware correctly.  However when I boot into uclinux I get
the following error in the log:

xilinx_spi #0: IO resource(s) not found
xilinx_spi: probe of xilinx_spi.0 failed with error -14


I have a few questions:

Is it possible to use the SPI IP core and Flash at the same time?     
If so how do I go about building the hardware?

I basically need to get an SPI set up.  If i'm going about it the wrong way I'd appreciate any advice.  

-alex