bemicro processor count

The BeMicro uses an EP3C16F256C8N. So the correct question is how many NIOS II processors can fit inside that device.

Here is the information for the Cyclone III:

http://www.altera.com/products/devices/cyclone3/overview/cy3-overview.html

The device has ~15,408 logic elements

Resource utilization for the NIOS II is best estimated using the NIOS II megawizard inside SoPC builder. However, this documents gives some info:

http://www.altera.com/literature/ds/ds_nios2_perf.pdf

So assume you are using the NIOS II/f implementation (~1800 logic elements). Theoretically you could fit 8 cores inside your Cyclone III. Now in reality there is a ton of other logic (Avalon interconnect fabric, SRAM cores, timers, and whatever else you've got in your design). What I would do is look at your current project and see what the resource utilization is and how much space you have left in the device. Then assume something like ~2000 LEs to add another core.

Jake