Honored Contributor
Honored Contributorrugbybloke:
I just did a test on code size between Nios1 sdk and Nios2 sdk. I generated two projects (one Nios1 and one Nios2e) targeted for a 1C3. The SOPC devices/names are the same in both projects. I also wrote a simple test program that prints messages and has a irq driven timer callback. The code compiled in both environments with no errors or rehosting (NOW THAT's IMPRESSIVE! http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif ). The compiler options were both the same: -Os. The Nios1 code size was about 1400 bytes and the Nios2 code was about 1730 bytes. This as about a 20% increase in code size for the Nios2, but one must keep in mind that they are different processors. With such a small program, I wonder how much of it is the difference in overhead. In another words, if my program trippled in size, would the % drop or stay at 20%? Don't know. I have not ported to this program to the IDE/HAL yet, but based on my experience the code size would be a magnatude larger - even with some of the "code size reduction activities". If I remember correctly when I did the reduced Hello world, the code size was > 3k. The bottom line in my opionion is if you need small code size, stay with the SDk. If you have gobs of memory, you really should be using the SDK. I have used both, and will continue to use both depending on the app. I'm mainly a software engineer, and I like both environments. Although I currently favor the sdk - just slightly.
