Nios II Hardware Development Tutorial

Altera Corporation

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Nios II Hardware Development TutorialNios II Hardware DevelopmentTutorial101 Innovation DriveSan Jose, CA 95134www.altera.comTU-N2HWDV-4.0 Subscribe© 2011 Altera Corporation. All rights reserved. ALTERA, ARRIA, CYCLONE, HARDCOPY, MAX, MEGACORE, NIOS, QUARTUS and STRATIX are Reg. U.S. Pat.& Tm. Off. and/or trademarks of Altera Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respectiveholders as described at www.altera.com/common/legal.html. Altera warrants performance of its semiconductor products to current specifications in accordancewith Altera’s standard warranty, but reserves the right to make changes to any products and services at any time without notice. Altera assumes no responsibility orliability arising out of the application or use of any information, product, or service described herein except as expressly agreed to in writing by Altera. Alteracustomers are advised to obtain the latest version of device specifications before relying on any published information and before placing orders for products orservices.Nios II Hardware Development Tutorial May 2011 Altera CorporationContentsChapter 1. Nios II Hardware DevelopmentDesign Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–1Software and Hardware Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...

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• Publié par: Arga
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• Langue: English
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Nios II Hardware Development Tutorial

101 Innovation Drive San Jose, CA 95134 www.altera.com

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Nios

II Hardware Development

Tutorial

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Nios II Hardware Development Tutorial

May 2011 Altera Corporation

Contents

Chapter 1. Nios II Hardware Development Design Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–1 Software and Hardware Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–2 OpenCore Plus Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–3 Nios II System Development Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–4 Analyzing System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–5 Defining and Generating the System in Qsys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–5 Integrating the Qsys System into the Quartus II Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–6 Developing Software with the Nios II So ftware Build Tools for Eclipse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–6 Running and Debugging Software on the Target Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–7 Varying the Development Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–7 Refining the Software and Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–7 Iteratively Creating a Nios II System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–7 Verifying the System with Hardware Simula tion Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–8 Creating the Design Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–8 Install the Design Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–8 Analyze System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–9 Start the Quartus II Software and Open the Example Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–9 Create a New Qsys System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–10 Define the System in Qsys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–11 Specify Target FPGA and Clock Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–11 Add the On-Chip Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–12 Add the Nios II Processor Core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–14 Add the JTAG UART . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–17 Add the Interval Timer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–18 Add the System ID Peripheral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–19 Add the PIO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–20 Specify Base Addresses and Interrupt Request Priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–22 Generate the Qsys System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–23 Integrate the Qsys System into the Quartus II Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–24 Instantiate the Qsys System Module in the Quartus II Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–25 Add IP Variation File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–26 Assign FPGA Device and Pin Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–26 Compile the Quartus II Project and Verify Timing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–29 Download Hardware Design to Target FPGA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–31 Develop Software Using the Nios II SBT for Eclipse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–32 Create a New Nios II Application and BSP from Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–32 Compile the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–34 Run the Program on Target Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 35 – Taking the Next Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–36 Additional Information Document Revision History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Info–1 How to Contact Altera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Info–1 Typographic Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Info–2 . . . . . . . .

May 2011 Altera Corporation

Nios II Hardware Development Tutorial

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Nios

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Altera Corporation

1. Nios II Hardware Development

This tutorial introduces you to the system development flow for the Nios®II processor. Using the Quartus®II software and the Nios II Embedded Design Suite (EDS), you build a Nios II hardware system design and create a software program that runs on the Nios II system and interfaces with components on Altera®   development boards. The tutorial is a good starting point if you are new to the Nios II processor or the general concept of building embedded systems in FPGAs. Building embedded systems in FPGAs involves system requirements analysis, hardware design tasks, and software design tasks. This tutorial guides you through the basics of each topic, with special focus on the hardware design steps. Where appropriate, the tutorial refers you to further documentation for greater detail. fIf you are interested only in software development for the Nios II processor, refer to the tutorial in theGetting Started with the Graphical User Interfacechapter of theNios II Software Developer’s Handbook. When you complete this tutorial, yo u will understand the Nios II system development flow, and you will be able to create your own custom Nios II system. Design Example The design example you build in this tutori al demonstrates a sm all Nios II system for control applications, that displays character I/O output and blinks LEDs in a binary counting pattern. This Nios II system can also communicate with a host computer, allowing the host computer to control logic inside the FPGA. The example Nios II system contains the following components: ■ Nios II/s processor core ■ On-chip memory ■ Timer ■ JTAG UART ■ parallel I/O (PIO) pins to control the LEDs8-bit ■ System identification component

May 2011 Altera Corporation

Nios II Hardware Development Tutorial

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Chapter 1: Nios II Hardware Development Software and Hardware Requirements

VCC

Figure 1–1is a block diagram showing the relati onship among the host computer, the target board, the FPGA, and the Nios II system. Figure 1–1. Tutorial Design Example Target Board Altera FPGA Nios II System c D o e n b tr u o g l Instr    Ni c o o s r  I e I/s Data PIO JTAG  System Character UART  ID   I/O On-chip Timer RAM

10-pin JTAG header

Clock oscillator

Other logic

LED0 LED1 LED2 LED3 LED4 LED5 LED6 LED7

As shown inFigure 1–1, other logic can exist within the FPGA alongside the Nios II system. In fact, most FPGA designs with a Nios II system also include other logic. A Nios II system can interact with other on-c hip logic, depending on the needs of the overall system. For the sake of simplicity, th e design example in this tutorial does not include other logic in the FPGA. Software and Hardware Requirements This tutorial requires you to have the following software: ■  later—The software must be installed onAltera Quartus II software version 11.0 or a Windows or Linux computer that meet s the Quartus II minimum requirements. fFor system requirements and installation instructions, refer toAltera Software Installation and Licensing. ■ Nios II EDS version 11.0 or later. ■ Design files for the design example—A hype rlink to the design files appears next to this document on theLiterature: Nios II Processorpage of the Altera website.

Nios II Hardware Development Tutorial

May 2011 Altera Corporation

Chapter 1: Nios II Hardware Development OpenCore Plus Evaluation

1–3

You can build the design example in this tutorial with any Altera development board or your own custom board that meets the following requirements: ■ The board must have an Altera Stratix®series, Cyclone®series, or Arria®series FPGA. ■  of 2500 logic elements (LE) or adaptive look-The FPGA must contain a mi nimum up tables (ALUT). ■  50 M4K or M9K memory blocks. ofThe FPGA must contain a minimum ■  clock frequency to an FPGA pin. TheAn oscillator must drive a constant maximum frequency limit depends on the speed grade of the FPGA. Frequencies of 50 MHz or less should work for most boards; higher frequencies might work. ■  eightFPGA I/O pins can optionally connect to or fewer LEDs to provide a visual indicator of processor activity. ■ The board must have a JTAG connection to the FPGA that provides a programming interface and communication link to the Nios II system. This ™ connection can be a dedicated 10-pin JTAG header for an Altera USB-Blaster   download cable (revision B or higher) or a USB connection with USB-Blaster circuitry embedded on the board. 1you must refer to the documentation for your board thatTo complete this tutorial, describes clock frequencies and pinouts. For Altera development boards, you can find this information in the associated reference manual. fFor information about Altera development ki ts and development boards, refer to the Literature: Development Kitspage of the Altera website.

OpenCore Plus Evaluation You can perform this tutorial on hardware without a license. With Altera's free OpenCore Plus evaluation feature, you can perform the following actions: ■ Simulate the behavior of a Nios II processor within your system ■ Verify the functionality of your design ■  design quickly and easily yourEvaluate the size and speed of ■ Generate time-limited device programming files for designs that include Nios II processors ■ Program a device and verify your design in hardware You need to purchase a license for the Nios II processor only when you are completely satisfied with its functionality and perfor mance, and want to use your design in production. fFor more information about OpenCore Plus, refer toOpenCore Plus Evaluation of Megafunctions.

May 2011 Altera Corporation

Nios II Hardware Development Tutorial

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Chapter 1: Nios II Hardware Development Nios II System Development Flow

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 1–2shows the Nios II system development flow. Figure 1–2. Nios II System Development Flow

Nios II cores and standard peripherals

Custom hardware modules

Analyze system requirements

Define and generate system in Qsys

Integrate Qsys system  Develop software with into Quartus II project B t u h il e d     N T i o o o s l  I s I     f S or o   f E tw cl a ip re se

t A i ss i i n gn pi q n  u l i o re ca m ti e o n n t s s , Download software executable  and ot m her g     d r e e sign constraints to Nios II system on target board

Comp f i o l r e     t h ar a g rd et w b ar o e a   r d d esign Run and debug software  on target board

Download FPGA design  ware Refine soft to target board  and hardware

Custom instruction and custom peripheral logic Altera hardware abstraction layer and peripheral drivers

User C/C++ application code and custom libraries

The Nios II development flow consists of three types of development: hardware design steps, software design steps, an d 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 de sign 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 kn ow 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. fAfter completing this tutorial, refer to theNios II Software Developer’s Handbook, especially the tutorial in theGetting Started with the Graphical User Interfacechapter, for more information about the software development process. The handbook is a complete reference for developing software for the Nios II processor.

Nios II Hardware Development Tutorial

May 2011 Altera Corporation

Chapter 1: Nios II Hardware Development Nios II System Development Flow

1–5

Analyzing System Requirements The development flow begins with predesign activity which includes an analysis of the application requirements, such as the following questions: ■ What computational performance does the application require? ■ How much bandwidth or throughput does the application require? ■ What types of interfaces does the application require? ■ Does the application require multithreaded software? Based on the answers to these questions, you can determine the concrete system requirements, such as: ■ Which Nios II processor core to use: smaller or faster. ■ the design requires and how many of each kind.What components ■ real-time operating system (RTOS) to use, if any.Which ■ Where hardware acceleration logic can dr amatically improve system performance. For example: ■ Could adding a DMA component eliminate wasted processor cycles copying data? ■  eCould a custom instruction replace th critical loop of a DSP algorithm? Analyzing these topics involve both the hardware and software teams.

Defining and Generating the System in Qsys After analyzing the system hardware requirements, you use Qsys to specify the Nios II processor core(s), memory, and other components your system requires. Qsys automatically generates the interconnect lo gic to integrate the components in the hardware system. You can select from a list of standard pr ocessor cores and components provided with the Nios II EDS. You can also add your own custom hardware to accelerate system performance. You can add custom instru ction logic to the Nios II core which accelerates CPU performance, or you can add a custom component which offloads tasks from the CPU. This tutorial covers adding standard processor and component cores, and does not cover adding custom logic to the system. The primary outputs of Qsys are the following file types: ■ Qsys Design File (.qsys)—Contains the hardware cont ents of the Qsys system. ■ SOPC Information File (.sopcinfo)—Contains a description of the contents of the .qsysfile in Extensible Markup Language File (.xml) format. The Nios II EDS uses the.sopcinfofile to create software for the target hardware. ■ Hardware description language (HDL) files—Are the hardware design files that describe the Qsys system. The Quartus II software uses the HDL files to compile the overall FPGA design into an SRAM Object File (.sof).

May 2011 Altera Corporation

Nios II Hardware Development Tutorial

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Chapter 1: Nios II Hardware Development Nios II System Development Flow

fmore information about the following topics, refer to the related documentation:For ■ For Nios II processor cores, refer to theNios II Processor Reference Handbook. ■ Qsys and developing custom components, refer to theFor System Design with Qsys   section ofVolume 1: Design and Synthesisof theQuartus II Handbook. ■ For custom instructions, refer to theNios II Custom Instruction User Guide.

Integrating the Qsys System into the Quartus II Project After generating the Nios II system using Qsys, you integrate it into the Quartus II project. Using the Quartus II software, you perform all tasks required to create the final FPGA hardware design. As shown inFigure 1–1 on page 1–2, most FPGA designs include logic outside the Nios II system. You can integrate your own custom hardware modules into the FPGA design, or you can integrate other ready-made intellectual property (IP) design modules available from Altera or third party IP providers. This tutorial does not cover adding other logic outside the Nios II system. Using the Quartus II software, you also assign pin locations for I/O signals, specify timing requirements, and apply other design constraints. Finally, you compile the Quartus II project to produce a .softo configure the FPGA. You download the .softo the FPGA on the target board using an Altera download cable, such as the USB-Blaster. After config uration, the FPGA behaves as specified by the hardware design, which in this case is a Nios II processor system. f Quartus II software, refer to theFor further information about usingIntroduction to the Quartus II Software, theQuartus II Handbook, and theQuartus II Software Interactive Tutorialin theTraining Coursessection of the Altera website.

Developing Software with the Nios II Software Build Tools for Eclipse Using the Nios II Software Build Tools (SBT ) for Eclipse™, you perform all software development tasks for your Nios II processor system. After you generate the system with Qsys, you can begin designing your C/C++ application code immediately with the Nios II SBT for Eclipse. Altera provides component drivers and a hardware abstraction layer (HAL) which allows you to write Nios II programs quickly and independently of the low-level hardware detail s. In addition to your application code, you can design and reuse custom libraries in your Nios II SBT for Eclipse projects. To create a new Nios II C/C++ application project, the Nios II SBT for Eclipse uses information from the.sopcinfofile. You also need the.soffile to configure the FPGA before running and debugging the appl ication project on target hardware. The Nios II SBT for Eclipse can produce severa l outputs, listed below. Not all projects require all of these outputs. ■ system.hfile—Defines symbols for referencing the hardware in the system. The Nios II SBT for Eclipse automatically create this file when you create a new board support package (BSP). ■ Executable and Linking Format File (.elf)—Is the result of compiling a C/C++ application project, that you can download directly to the Nios II processor.

Nios II Hardware Development Tutorial

May 2011 Altera Corporation

Chapter 1: Nios II Hardware Development Nios II System Development Flow

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■ Hexadecimal (Intel-Format) File (.hex)—Contains initialization information for on-chip memories. The Nios II SBT for Eclips e generate these initialization files for on-chip memories that support initialization of contents. ■ Flash memory programming data—Is boot code and other arbitrary data you might write to flash memory. The Nios II SBT for Eclipse includes a flash programmer, which allows you to write your program to flash memory. The flash programmer adds appropriate boot code to allow your program to boot from flash memory. You can also use the flash progra mmer to write arbitrary data to flash memory. This tutorial focuses on downloading only the.elfdirectly to the Nios II system. finformation about developing so ftware for the Nios II processor, refer toFor extensive theNios II Software Developer's Handbook.

Running and Debugging Softwa re on the Target Board The Nios II SBT for Eclipse provides complete facilities for downloading software to a target board, and running or debugging the program on hardware. The Nios II SBT for Eclipse debugger allows you to start and stop the processor, step through code, set breakpoints, and analyze variables as the program executes. f NiosFor information about running and debugging II programs, refer to the tutorial in theGetting Started with the Graphical User Interfacechapter of theNios II Software Developer’s Handbook.

Varying the Development Flow The development flow is not strictly linear. This section describes common variations. Refining the Software and Hardware After running software on the target boar d, you might discover that the Nios II system requires higher performance. In this case, you can return to software design steps to make improvements to the software algorithm. Alternatively, you can return to hardware design steps to add acceleration logic. If the system performs multiple mutually exclusive tasks, you might even decide to use two (or more) Nios II processors that divide the workload and improve the performance of each individual processor. Iteratively Creating a Nios II System A common technique for building a complex Ni os II system is to start with a simpler Qsys system, and iteratively add to it. At each iteration, you can verify that the system performs as expected. You might choose to verify the fundamental components of a system, such as the processor, memory, an d communication channels, before adding more complex components. When developing a custom component or a custom instruction, first integrate the custom logic into a minimal system to verify that it works as expected; later you can integrat e the custom logic into a more complex system.

May 2011 Altera Corporation

Nios II Hardware Development Tutorial