Experience on Nios II system

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

 I am working on building a NIOS II system.  I have tried the examples of HelloWorld and blinking LED.  As I need to create a custom system, I need to know how the system works. However, I have a hard time understanding the HDL files even from a simple system as HelloWorld. I have looked through Altera's tutorial and help files. But still, I do not really understand how the different components work together.   For those who have experience in building Nios II system or SOPC builder, can you share your experience on how you learn up on this? Like where or how do you start?

[Altera_Forum]

Well, really, how about the Altera tutorials? 

 Trying to understand the HDL files is something of a wasted effort. The actual structure of the code is very different to what you see in SoPC Builder. The idea is that SoPC Builder allows you to think of the interconnection as busses in the conventional sense, but the actual structure of the HDL code is very much more involved than that. So don't bother trying until you are a NIOS/SoPC guru.  A good place to start would be the NIOS-II Hardware Development Tutorial, that's where I started. http://www.altera.com/literature/tt/tt_nios2_hardware_tutorial.pdf  John

[Altera_Forum]

FPGA design is not simple. Is there an experienced hardware engineer around who can help you get the FPGA design built? 

 Jake

[Altera_Forum]

Actually I am a research student. I am working on hardware/ software partitioning using the Nios II, SOPC builder and Nios IDE. I am finding my way around and learning up on the system. So any sharing on how to speed up the learning curve is greatly appreciated.

[Altera_Forum]

Well the best I could do is point you here: 

http://www.altera.com/literature/hb/nios2/edh_ed_handbook.pdf and here: http://www.altera.com/literature/lit-nio2.jsp  Jake