Nios-II/Nios-V future on Intel FPGAs

[Jan1000]

Hello,

My colleagues and I teach a university course on FPGAs, and I have a question regarding the anticipated support for the Nios-V processor in Quartus. Until now, we have incorporated the Nios-II processor in Quartus Lite Edition for our coursework. However, we recently encountered a warning indicating that Nios-II is no longer recommended for new designs and that Nios-V should be considered as its successor.

In light of this, I would like to know the future trajectory of Nios soft processors within Quartus Lite Edition. Should we continue to utilize Nios-II despite the warning, or are there any plans to integrate Nios-V support into the Lite Edition as well? I attempted to create an example Nios-V design, but it appears that the software flow is not supported in the Lite version.

Given that Xilinx/AMD FPGAs offer the free MicroBlaze as a softcore processor, it would be disappointing if there were no long-term solution for Intel FPGAs.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Best regards,
Jan

[sstrell]

What version of Quartus Lite are you using?  Nios V is fully supported in the latest including the RiscFree IDE (23.1): https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/central-libraries/us/en/documents/2023-11/quartus-prime-comparison-infographic.pdf

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/software-kit/795188/intel-quartus-prime-lite-edition-design-software-version-23-1-for-windows.html (under additional software)

And you should not create any new designs with Nios II.  It's gone already in Pro. https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/details/fpga/nios-processor/v.html

[khtan]

Hi sstrell,

Thanks for providing the information on the 23.1 Lite version and Nios II.

Hi Jan, 

What sstrell mentioned is correct, Nios II has been discontinued and users are advised to migrate to Nios V onwards.  Did you test on 23.1 Quartus Lite Edition when you mentioned software flow on Nios V is not supported?

I will also check with our Intel university program coordinator to confirm on this.

Thanks

Regards

Kian

[khtan]

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

[Jan1000]

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

[khtan]

Hi Jan,

Thanks for the information, let me investigate on our end why lite version Nios V is not there and get back to you later and the documents for nios V.

Thanks

Regards

Kian

[khtan]

Hi Jan,

I've tested on the Quartus Lite 23.1 , it does have Nios V supported. One of the design example that I downloaded from design store

To generate Nios V BSP, unfortunately it is different from Pro , you will need to refer to this document to do the BSP generation

https://cdrdv2-public.intel.com/778830/an-778829-778830.pdf

For reference , you can refer to the Nios V handbook https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/docs/programmable/726952/23-4/about-the-embedded-processor.html

By the way, I saw that RiscFree IDE is also supported as during Quartus Lite installation , there is an option to install it.

Thanks

Regards

Kian

[khtan]

Hi Jan,

I did a follow up with our university course coordinator, he mentioned that they intend to have the materials available by the end of Q2. The materials are specifically designed for Quartus Std/Lite since our educational boards (such as the DE1-SoC and DE10-Lite boards) have Cyclone V and Max 10 devices.

Is there anything else I could help on this case, otherwise I would like to close the case and transition it to community support.

Thanks

Regards

Kian