Sorry if this is a repeat post. . . I'm trying to understand the reasons why someone would put a soft ARM processor in an FPGA. Both Xilinx and Altera have fine 32-bit offerings that have good development environments, growing ecosystems, and rich catalogs of IP. I suspect it has something to do with ARM being an industry standard or something like that, but the reality is that the ARM will run at like 25 MHz on a good day, while the MicroBlaze or NIOS will run 2X - 3X without much effort. So what gives?
FYI, I'm a hardware guy, so if the advantages are SW-based, a little elaboration will be greatly appreciated.