Creating Memory device for Nios II processor

Hello,

I want to transfer data from my custom component to the processor. Ideally it would be possible to access the data using pointer. Normally I would have to use IORD and IOWR macros to circumvent the caching of the processor.

I plan to implement the interface as an Avalon MM slave interface. If I add a new memory device in the "Linker Script" section will it it possible to access the region using pointers then?

Can I declare the interface as an memory device in the TCL script of my component?

Are there any prerequisites to use the interface as a memory device, e.g.:

-must the interface expose both a read write port (I only want to read data from the interface)

-does the interface have to support pipelined transfers, bursting?

Best regards

Martin