Altera Nios II, Hardware Development Manual

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1–4 Chapter 1: Nios II Hardware Development
Nios II System Development Flow
Nios II Hardware Development Tutorial May 2011 Altera Corporation
Nios II System Development Flow
This section discusses the complete design flow for creating a Nios II system and
prototyping it on a target board.
Figure 1–2 shows the Nios II system development
flow.
The Nios II development flow consists of three types of development: hardware
design steps, software design steps, and system design steps, involving both
hardware and software. For simpler Nios II systems, one person might perform all
steps. For more complex systems, separate hardware and software designers might be
responsible for different steps. System design steps involve both the hardware and
software, and might require input from both sides. In the case of separate hardware
and software teams, it is important to know exactly what files and information must
be passed between teams at the points of intersection in the design flow.
The design steps in this tutorial focus on hardware development, and provide only a
simple introduction to software development.
f
After completing this tutorial, refer to the Nios II Software Developer’s Handbook ,
especially the tutorial in the Getting Started with the Graphical User Interface chapter, for
more information about the software development process. The handbook is a
complete reference for developing software for the Nios II processor.
Figure 1–2. Nios II System Development Flow
Altera
hardware
abstraction
layer
and
peripheral
drivers
Define and generate
system in Qsys
Analyze system
requirements
User C/C++
application
code and
custom
libraries
Custom
instruction
and
custom
peripheral
logic
Custom
hardware
modules
Nios II
cores
and
standard
peripherals
Integrate Qsys system
into Quartus II project
Develop software with
the Nios II Software
Build Tools for Eclipse
Assign pin locations,
timing requirements
and other design constraints
Download FPGA design
to target board
Compile hardware design
for target board
Run and debug software
on target board
Refine software
and hardware
Download software executable
to Nios II system on target board