NoisII or else.

Apr 08, 2008 8 Replies

Hi,



Simple question.



Can I put a NiosII on an FPGA alone, no ROM no DRAM no SRAM no nothing, Just the FPGA ?



(examples and kits put me on the opposite extreme)



I understand that I would have little ram space etc... so programs will be small... etc etc... I just wonder if it is feasible and how to load all from the config device.


OR is there anything else more appropriate to place inside an FPGA easy to put working alone. (micro controller I mean). Luis C.

LC pisze:

Hi,

Yes, you can work with internal ram only. Yes you can store program in configuration memory used for FPGA.

I tested.

Adam

Excellent,

Would it be possible to have a bit more details on how to, just to ease my learning curve. Thanks.

Luis C.

Górski Adam wrote:

Or you can store the program in internal RAM (functioning as ROM) too for a fully self-contained system. To make this easier, there is a mechanism to update the RAM initialization contents without needing to do a full re-synthesis and PAR each time.

If you use SOPC Builder it is trivial to set this up.

- Just run SOPC Builder

- make a system with nios ii , internall ram and for example port i/o.

- generate system

- put generated system into top schematic

- build fpga image

- load to fpga

- run Nios ide

- and have some fun

That's all

Adam

Tks Adam. I started to play with it... looks indeed not too difficult.

lc.

Górski Adam wrote:

Tks. David. What is the trick to get the program uploaded to RAM and run it without re-synthesis ? Is that within the NIOS ide ? Or should I go back to quartus for some operation ? That is certainly the way to go while testing and debugging the code.

Thanks. Luis c.

David Spencer wrote:

Hi Luis,

1 ) You can run " Processing -> Update memory initialization file " and then "Processing -> Start Assembler" to update fpga image file with lastest NIOS code.

2) You can use also EPCS controller module (SOPC Builder ) This is a little bit more complex. Just set start vector of your nios procesor to EPCS controller and build all again.

And finally use from Nios IDE "tools->Flash Programmer .." to program both *.sof and *.elf file

Adam

Many thanks for the very helpful guidelines.

Luis C.

Górski Adam wrote:

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required