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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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16 years ago

Need an information

Hello everyone,

I need to fetch the current time when I use Nios II IDE (v.9.1). Can anyone write me the syntax in C language. I tried one but it does nothing.

Thanks to all for your time!

Best regards!

8 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    16 years ago

    Thanks Daixiwen!

    I found the functions in the "altera.components" folder but you confused me

    now a little. Why I have to set the time, can I simple fetch the time value with time, gmtime or localtime functions from the system without seting the time value? I saw that it counts from the 1970 year.

    Thanks.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    16 years ago

    Daixiwen I used the settimeofday function to set the time but it shows me

    every time the same time when I start my application. Do I have to setup a system timer to compute the new time (e.g. xx number of ticks per second to increase the value of seconds)? Have you an idea?

    Best regards,

    Zodrax
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    16 years ago

    If your system doesn't have an external battery powered RTC clock, it has no way of knowing the time. In that case it will start at January 1st 1970. To set the correct time at start-up, you can either use a client-server approach (port a NTP client and have it connect to an NTP server) or ask the user to type in the actual time and date.

    Once the time is set, it will increase automatically and you can read it with gettimeofday or other time functions.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    16 years ago

    Thank you Daixiwen.

    I have only the DE1 board connected to my notebook and tried to fetch the time from my OS from notebook, but unsuccessful. As the supply for my board I use my notebook over the USB port.

    Best Regards.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    16 years ago

    So you don't have any network connection, which will make it difficult to use NTP.

    You can either type the time yourself at boot time by having your NIOS application asking it on the JTAG uart, or create your own protocol, with a small software on your PC that would send automatically the time to your NIOS application, either through the Uart or by using the console tools.

    The first solution is the easiest to implement.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    16 years ago

    So if I would type the tiime at boot time do I have to write also a small code so that the time can increase?

    How would I implement the second above solution, e.g to write the protocol? I never tried it.

    Thank you very much for your time and solutions Daixiwen!

    Best regards!
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    16 years ago

    No, once you've set up the system time in your application, it will increase automatically.

    For the protocol, it really depends on your application and what kind of resources you have.