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Honored Contributor
Honored ContributorHow much overhead using NIOS?
Just starting out in the FPGA programming process. I’ve tested the BeMicro FPGA MCU Evaluation Board with Nios II and have run some of the samples. Now that I have an idea of how it all works togethe...
Altera_ForumHonored Contributor
Honored Contributor --- Quote Start --- @dwh, that sample is a great starting point for the next step in my learning. Thanks. The recommended platform is the NIOS II Embedded Evaluation kit. I don’t mind spending the money on the kit but it looks like it has several features (LCD for example) that I really don’t need right now. Is there a less feature rich/more focused product I could use to implement this example? --- Quote End --- Any kit with a Cyclone/Arria/Stratix device will do; these all support NIOS processors. A MAX II kit will not, as those devices have no on-chip RAM. Most of the basic NIOS examples do not need to use pins on the FPGA, other than JTAG, so porting to any kit is simple, eg. a design with NIOS II, JTAG-UART, JTAG-to-Avalon Master (for system console), on-chip RAM, and an accelerator, does not require any FPGA pins at all. If your board has LEDs, then you can add a PIO and toggle them; first using system console via JTAG (from your development PC), and then using the NIOS II processor. If you have trouble, just ask. Cheers, Dave
