Forum Discussion
Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
Honored ContributorAlternatives to NIOS
I'm getting a bit frustrated with NIOS and I'd like to consider alternative soft-cores. NIOS seems to be very powerful for OS implementations, but not too efficient for small microcontroller-like app...
Altera_ForumHonored Contributor
Honored Contributor --- Quote Start --- Wow what a strange complaint. I have designed processing cores and you can't get the performance without the pipeline. --- Quote End --- I didn't complain about the pipeline. All I said about the pipeline, is that its depth has a devastating effect on the /e core. The /e core seems to implement all the pipeline stages, but in a sequential, non-pipelined way. That was a sample to make the point that NIOS is designed to be efficient for the /f and /s cores, not for the /e core. I wasn't complaining. I realize that is the best solution for most cases. I just was hoping I could find something else designed from the ground for a smaller size. But seems there is no such a thing. Everybody targets high-performance cores such as Nios, or tiny 8-bit softcores such as PicoBlaze or Mico8. Nothing in the middle.
