Forum Discussion

Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
20 years ago

Wifi with nios2

Hello,

we have a system based on Nios2 that needs a wireless communication. For now, we are using an all-in-one module with a serial connection but we are limited in different ways :

- serial port speed maximum 115200

- since we use uClinux, we do not have a real network access (we can emulate a network access through serial port but it is not exactly what we want)

- the module price is huge

An alternate solution is to use a WiFi chipset with a MII or PCI (or else) and to link it to the Nios2. Again, some questions arrive :

- Does anybody have an idea of what chipset could be the easiest to interface with the Nios2 ?

- What kind of interface is better : MII, PCI, PCX, ... ?

- What chipset is easily interfaced with uClinux (existing drivers) ?

That makes a lot of questions, but if someaone has some answers, please tell me.

Thanks in advace,

Regards

pod

4 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    20 years ago

    --- Quote Start ---

    originally posted by cetic@May 31 2005, 12:43 PM

    - since we use uclinux, we do not have a real network access (we can emulate a network access through serial port but it is not exactly what we want)

    --- Quote End ---

    What do you mean, no network access? Is there no telnet possible?

    At the very least, one could write a cgi script via the web interface? We are currently using this on another embedded platform, but the idea is to port most of thye functionality to the Nios2.

    We are currently using these services (on PowerPC):[list][*]httpd: we use the busybox httpd for this, but a quick check with the Nios2 showed some problems with fork/daemon.

    [*]dropbear: ssh access, I don't know if this is a feasible solution on the Nios2, but a quick look showed the same problems as above. This could be replaced (again) with telnet (hopefully).

    [/list]But I need to have a better look into these in the next week(s).
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    20 years ago

    I'd be interested too... it looks like many people want to set up a wireless link with NIOS II. Microtronix provides a solution (700 USD), to interface NIOS II with a compact flash 802.11b card.

    Does anyone know of a solution that allows a transmission over 802.11g???

    Thanks,

    Laurent
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    20 years ago

    Furthermore, has anyone already used Microtronix's 802.11b kit?

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    20 years ago

    I investigated this a while ago, and from what i remember one aproach would be to use a USB based wifi card.

    Sorry could not be more helpfull.

    Ilya