Altera is focused on giving automotive manufacturers a competitive edge with embedded processor solutions that are currently used in navigation, telematics, car radio, body controller, and other automotive applications.
Altera’s FPGA, CPLD, and HardCopy® ASIC design software is integrated with a complete embedded design environment. In one integrated package, you get all the tools you need to win in this highly competitive market. Altera's embedded solution (see Figure 1) provides a cost-effective, flexible, and high-performance alternative to various microcontrollers available in the market.
Figure 1. Altera's Embedded Solution
The Nios® II family of embedded processors is Altera's second-generation soft core embedded processor for FPGAs and was recently named the #1 widely used soft processor by market research firm Gartner. The Nios II processor implements a 32-bit instruction set based on a RISC architecture. Nios II processors can be easily combined with user logic and then programmed into an Altera® FPGA targeting a wide range of automotive applications. Because it is a soft core processor, you can choose from several system configurations, picking the best-fit CPU core as well as selecting from dozens of SOPC Builder-ready processor peripherals, creating an exact-fit solution. Additional system performance can be achieved by using the Nios II C-to-Hardware (C2H) acceleration compiler. Furthermore, the Nios II soft core processor is easily ported to new or future FPGAs, making it an obsolete-proof microcontroller architecture.
Nios II embedded processors feature world-class software development tools. The Nios II development kits contain all the hardware and software development tools needed for embedded system development, including the SOPC Builder system development tool and the Nios II Software Studio.
To learn more about how you can leverage Nios II and SOPC Builder to build your next-generation automotive electronic system, refer to Embedded Processor Solutions.
