Nuvation HEADLINES 
|
New IP
|
| » |
ATA 4/5, UDMA 33/66 Core for Xilinx Spartan 3 |
| » |
ATA 4/5, UDMA 33/66 for Altera Cyclone |
| » |
GFP-F IP Core |
| » |
PCI-Express Core |
|
|
New Affiliations
|
| » |
W&W Communications H.264 CODEC Integration Partner |
| » |
Lattice Certified FPGA Design Center |
| » |
Intel PCI Express Developers Network |
| » |
ADI Certified DSP Partner |
|
|
|  |
|
|
Device Spotlight:
NIOS II from Altera
  Altera's new embedded processor, the Nios II, is this issue's Device Spotlight. NIOS II is an embedded processor implemented as a Soft IP-Core inside an Altera FPGA. While the original NIOS has been available for quite some time, the NIOS II release is a major advancement in this technology space. Nuvation has used embedded processors in a wide variety of projects over the last few years, and is now commencing new designs using NIOS II. In addition to our Client design projects, the engineers at Nuvation working on CycloneBot will also be including the benefits of NIOS II into our leading-edge combat robot.
|
NIOS II is actually a family of embedded processors with three distinct flavors available from Altera. For complex designs, NIOS II/f provides the most powerful computing resources. NIOS II's new architecture can achieve 200 DMIPS through a more advanced pipeline, improved instruction set, branch prediction, faster clock rate support, and lower instructions-per-cycle. For smaller and more resource-constrained designs, NIOS II family includes versions that balance performance features against LE count and internal memory needs. The NIOS II/s is a slightly smaller version than the II/f, but still capable of 200 DMIPS. And the much smaller II/e that drops performance to 28DMIPS, but can use as little as 600 LE's (a truly tiny amount!)
Because of NIOS II's improved performance and multiple versions (fast, standard, and economy, described above), we can help lower BOM costs using embedded processors in designs tha previously required separate FPGA and MCU devices. In large volume designs, looking at the percentage of the FPGA needed for the NIOS II, the processor cost can be measured in dimes and quarters!
NIOS II also includes a significant step forward in the development tools. A more advanced debugger and IDE are now available, built on the Eclipse open-platform system for tools development. In addition to the tools, there are new example applications, a new TCP/IP stack, µC/OS-II support, and a simple file system. All these facilities will help increase engineering efficiency. NIOS II will save you more than just component costs, we can also help achieve faster time-to-market and lower up-front investment.
CycloneBot, a project in development with NIOS II that we can talk about, currently uses NIOS for it's central processor. Currently we push the NIOS to it's limits in terms of processor performance, peripheral integration, multi-tasking, and low-latency network control. In early September we will be porting CB to the NIOS II. NIOS II will allow us to improve the robot's control system and make this an even more effective fighting machine. We will be advancing our control algorithms, improving our data acquisition system, and making other improvements. CycloneBot with NIOS II will be outfitted with the new algorithms and improved control in time for the Robot Fighting League 2004 Nationals this October. If you're in the San Francisco area during the weekend of October 8-10th, please come see CycloneBot with NIOS II in action. In the meantime, if you have designs that might benefit from a port to NIOS II, please check with your Nuvation Account Manager or Project Manager to confirm if this new technology can reduce your BOM costs or improve your system performance.
|
Customer service
· To subscribe yourself or a friend, please click
here.
· Questions? Comments?
Send us your feedback.
|
|
 |
