[hpsdr] any Nios-II programmers out there?

[Hermann]

Dear Ken, Phil, All,

I can only second Phil's remarks, and would like to add my 2 cent:

Although it seems that Altera has made considerable progress with the NIOS
II (compared to NIOS I, which had a rather disappointing performance, as I
encountered years ago in a totally different domain), it still has to be
proven, if the performance is sufficient when using 'standard' methods
provided by Altera.

If not, we are really entering embedded real-time programming, that is, we
have to care about a real-time OS (different from Linux), the scheduling of
a RTOS, memory management, probably custom instructions in order to use
special FPGA-accelerated implementations, etc. I'm not saying that this is
impossible, but considerable efforts are needed. Altera is providing a tool
chain for that (NIOS II EDS), which is free, but a 'ready-made' RTOS need a
separate production license, which is not free. Maybe there are other
RTOSes which can be used, but this has to be clarified. Also, one has to
consider a possible Open Source license model for such a code (as I
understood from Joe and Abhi, the code should be Open Source).

I don't want to be interpreted as being pessimistic - on the contrary! But
just wanted to point out some issues on which we should ponder a little.
But I'm pretty sure Abhi has already considered these!

73, Hermann
DL3HVH




On Sun, Aug 5, 2012 at 10:29 AM, Phil Harman <phil at pharman.org> wrote:

> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>
> Hi Ken,
>
> If its simply a matter of adding a Nios-II CPU core to the Angelia FGPA
> then I can certainly assist.  Using the free Altera Quartus tools I added a
> Nios-II CPU to Metis and in C programmed "Hello World" and sent it to the
> TTL RS232 port.
>
> Once the CPU core been defined and included then its really over to the C
> programmers to work their magic.
>
> However, the CPU core that you are able to build with the free Altera
> tools is fairly basic and I feel you would need to purchase a subscription
> to gain access to some of the higher performance Nios-II cores.
>
> There are alternatives to the Nios CPU. I recall that John Melton was able
> to add a rather nice RISC processor from opencores.org  to Metis and all
> the software development tools were free.  I also think John tested another
> CPU core but can't recall the details.
>
> I also suggest we want to think carefully about what we want a CPU to do.
> After all, one of our members has already added filtering, AGC and
> demodulation to a Mercury board in order to produce a receiver that does
> not need any DSP in an associated PC.  That still leaves a bandscope and
> waterfall but there are free FFT libraries for FPGAs that we could use.
>
> 73 Phil...VK6APH
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Ken N9VV
> Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2012 9:32 AM
> To: OpenHPSDR
> Subject: [hpsdr] any Nios-II programmers out there?
>
>
> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>
> I see the new Angelia TRx will have a very robust FPGA
> using a Cyclone-4 FPGA. Here is a link to the soft core
> PC available from Altera, called Nios-II:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/**Nios_II<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nios_II>
>
> The prospect of coding DSP demodulation in Nios-II inside
> the FPGA is just too big a leap for my simple mind!! <g>
>
> It looks like our tether to the PC is fast approaching
> an alternative with embedded processors or soft core FPGA
> code!
>
> I hope OpenHPSDR and Apache Labs can attract a knowledgeable
> Nios-II programmer to join the Angelia effort. There is so
> much promise in this new hardware.
>
> BGA Lives!
> 73 de Ken N9VV
> --
>
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