Hi! Our Company is developing soft-processors using Nios I, but due to Nios I is not supported any more, as well as due to more advantageous JTAG use, we have to use Nios II. The problem we are facing is that certain requirements restrict use of interrupts, including RTOS. The issue is: Is there any possibility to create project without using RTOS, including HAL libraries? The best solution would be creating programs without using HAL functions, but JTAG-debug. In extremes, we would write Makefile by ourselves.

If you are in the Eclipse IDE, you can still create a project without the RTOS. It will still compile the HAL though, but you don't have to use it if you don't want to. You can directly access the hardware from your application without using the HAL, and it won't be linked in. Making a custom Makefile to ensure it isn't even compiled is also a possibility, yes.

Thank you for your answer, but even if I use blank project with settings of "Hello world small" - size of the program is 4.5k. I think size of the blank program shoud be less than 1k. For our development, size is an important thing, because we also use several Nios-processors, based on 1 FPGA. I tried to compile blank program, something like this: void main() {}; //without any includes but HAL-libraries were included in Makefile, and size of program in .elf file isn't changed (4.5k). Can I exclude HAL from my project completely to minimize size of the program?

This starts to be a bit out of my field, and I hope someone else will be able to answer, but I think there are a few things that are done by the HAL before going into main(). If I remember correctly you can avoid those steps and begin in a function called alt_main() instead, with fewer initialization, but you will have to search a bit to see how this is done.

Did You enable -Os optimization? Optimization is disabled by default. Also You can run RTOS with only one task :) Well... rather more workaround than a logic solution.

And not a solution in this case, because even with only one task, the OS still uses the system timer and its interrupt to run the scheduler.

How to disable RTOS? | Altera Community

14 Replies

Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
14 years ago
thank U, dsl! but i need to get into NIOS II IDE. If not, I'll have to use NIOS I.
Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
14 years ago
I don't know of any reason why you can't do what you want using the IDE.
I just have a massive aversion to the straightjacket that IDE put you into.
Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
14 years ago
Hi Artyom,
you can also take a look to objdump file (clearly previously enabled to be generated) just to understand what still remain in your application.
Moreover you have also to remember that, all peripheral that you've foreseen in your FPGA design, automatically at compilation of BSP includes proper device driver: therefore
if you don't want to use them you have to remove from you design or remove device driver within BSP editor.

Ciao
Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
14 years ago
Thank you everyone for your replies! Really, if not to use HAL functions, they won’t be included into the code (however, they are libraries in Makefile). And my code was big because of periphery drivers. I switched them off in BSP settings and got pure code (around 500 bites). That’s I wished to get. Thanks once again! I think the topic can be closed.

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How to disable RTOS?

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