Load custom-data to On-Chip memory

Thanks Pete for the input.

I believe there is another option to do this. I followed the instructions in the NIOS II software development handbook and used the NIOS shell in Eclipse to generate the memory initialization file

make mem_init_generate

This command also generate a .qip file, which is used to point the quartus II to the mif.

Before programming the device I modified some entries of the mif according to my test-data.

How can I now debug/monitor the data in the on-chip memory?

Using the NIOS debugger in Eclipse, there is a Memory monitor and memory browser functionality but I am not sure if these are the correct tools. Couldn't find my data so far.

How can I prevent NIOS II from writing application code/ instruction data into memory I dedicated to be my custom data.

In other words where can I determine which addresses of the on-chip memory are reserved for the NIOS II application?

Would it be feasible to add a 2nd on-chip component in qsys which would be solely dedicated for the custom data?

Thanks dom