Nios - cyclone toolchain questions

[tns1]

I have downloaded the quartusIIwe, and used it to synthesize some
modules for cyclone parts - works great. Now I would like to try SOPC
builder and compile some C for an existing nios board, but am a little
confused about the toolchain.

QuartusII comes with cygwin, but it looks like there is no gcc, etc. for
nios. Altera's site says the Gnupro tools for nios do not require a
license, but I don't see where I can get these tools without purchasing
a license. Altera has a link to their ftp site where the sources are
supposed to be, but there are no files there. No sign of nios tools on
the redhat site either. It looks like the tools used to be free but no
longer.

What's the story? Are the SW tools free or not, and where do I get them?

I see there is an independant CDK for nios in sourceforge. Is this a
direct replacement for gnupro?, or is there some downside to using these
like no integration with quartusII?

thanks

 

[Maciej Witaszek]

On Sun, 18 Apr 2004 00:10:58 +0200, tns1 wrote:

What's the story? Are the SW tools free or not, and where do I get them?

Hi,
The path to gnupro tool that's published at
http://www.altera.com/support/kdb/rd11272000_7307.html
are wrong. You may ask a Support to correct one, because
I obtain it from them. If they don't want to tell you,
ask me to send you the address. The gnupro tools are published
under GPL, so it's free. But I don't know if I can publish
a path to it. (??)

It's a source code of tool chains only:gcc, gdb, ld, ...
It doesn't have nios-build and nios-run tools,
a SOPC Builder and NIOS components like CPU core.
You should obtain them with your dev board.

The source code is at some pleaces broken. There are new line
where it shouldn't be. In some files there are new lines
in DOS format rather than in Unix. So it needs some expererience
in Unix/Linux programming. I compiled it with gcc-3.3.3 from
Gentoo Linux. I was trying older gcc-2.54, but without success.
I thin that it's possible to compile gnupro under Windows using
Cygwin libraries.

Best Regards,
Maciej Witaszek

--
Maciej Witaszek
nospam_mwitasze@elka.pw.edu.pl

remove "nospam_" from my address

 

[tns1]

Thanks, I did get the gcc-nios compiler working. I just didn't realize I
needed to install Quartus AND the Gnu tools AND the Nios kit to get
there. I spent way too much time on the Altera website trying to figure
this out.

Since Gnu is about sharing source, I see no reason not to publish the
download link, particularly since Altera seems to want to hide the fact
that it is free.


Maciej Witaszek wrote:

On Sun, 18 Apr 2004 00:10:58 +0200, tns1 wrote:


What's the story? Are the SW tools free or not, and where do I get them?


Hi,
The path to gnupro tool that's published at
http://www.altera.com/support/kdb/rd11272000_7307.html
are wrong. You may ask a Support to correct one, because
I obtain it from them. If they don't want to tell you,
ask me to send you the address. The gnupro tools are published
under GPL, so it's free. But I don't know if I can publish
a path to it. (??)

It's a source code of tool chains only:gcc, gdb, ld, ...
It doesn't have nios-build and nios-run tools,
a SOPC Builder and NIOS components like CPU core.
You should obtain them with your dev board.

The source code is at some pleaces broken. There are new line
where it shouldn't be. In some files there are new lines
in DOS format rather than in Unix. So it needs some expererience
in Unix/Linux programming. I compiled it with gcc-3.3.3 from
Gentoo Linux. I was trying older gcc-2.54, but without success.
I thin that it's possible to compile gnupro under Windows using
Cygwin libraries.

Best Regards,
Maciej Witaszek