Nios-II/Nios-V future on Intel FPGAs

Hi Jan,

I've gotten the feedback from our Altera/Intel University program coordinator on this matter as per below:

Basically Nios V is available on Standard/Lite version 23.1 and currently they are working on the educational material around Nios V which will be available later this year.

The current stance is to stick with Nios II for now. Once Altera release the new materials for Nios V, then it would be up to the individual professors to decide whether to continue using Nios II or move to Nios V. However do note that in near future, Altera will only be supporting Nios V in the university program .

Thanks

Regards

Kian

Hi sstrell, khtan,

thank you for your replies. I have tested it with latest 23.1 Lite version on Ubuntu OS and also on Windows 10. I went through AN985 (https://cdrdv2-public.intel.com/784469/an-784468-784469.pdf ) and in Software requirements there is specifically named "Intel Quartus Prime Pro Edition Software version 23.2" and here https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/programmable/support-resources/design-software/os-support.html#tab-blade-1-0 I have found that you mention RiscFree IDE only on Pro Editon tab and there is only Nios-II on Lite Edition tab. Therefore, I have probably misunderstood that Nios-V is not supported in Lite version.

There were other reasons to believe so:

1) in AN985 in section 1.2.3.1. Creating a Board Support Package, there is a flow to generate BSP, but in my Platform designer, I see no menu option File->New BSP (tested on both Ubuntu OS and Windows 10)

2) I have tried to create BSP via the command line tool niosv-bsp as described here https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/docs/programmable/743810/24-1/niosv-bsp-30520.html#xsf1640875330520__section_tcc_vdx_bsb , but I get "Error: Unrecognized switch <b>p</b>". Even if I tried to generate the BSP as described here https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/programmable/articles/000096537.html ), I still get errors (I have tested both -p and --quartus-project options).

From these I concluded that it is a problem of Lite version. I am happy to read that Nios-V is going to be supported.

Please, do you have some recommendations on verified handbook / manual for Lite version? Is there another trick for niosv-bsp to generate the BSP?

Thank you.

Best regards,

Jan