Altera offers a variety of development tools to accelerate the embedded design process (see Figure 1). Together with selected partners, Altera offers a range of software development tools, hardware development tools, and development kits that include everything you need to quickly and easily create and implement a design.
Figure 1. Development Tools to Accelerate Embedded Design
Software Development Tools
Altera, along with its embedded software partners, offers a range of powerful tools for your software development needs.
Nios II Embedded Design Suite
The Nios® II Embedded Design Suite (EDS) is a collection of components and tools used to develop embedded software for the Nios II processor, including Nios II Software Build Tools for Eclipse based on the familiar Eclipse development environment. See what's new in the latest release.
Embedded Software Partners
Altera is proud to showcase several embedded software partners who provide the following products that support the Nios II processor.
- Operating systems
- Middleware
- Compilers
- IDEs
- Debuggers
- Co-verification tools
Hardware Development Tools
Altera offers a range of hardware development tools that enable the highest levels of productivity and the fastest path to design completion for high-density FPGA designs.
Quartus II FPGA System Design Tool
Altera’s Quartus® II software leads the industry as the most comprehensive environment available for FPGA designs, providing unmatched performance delivery, efficiency, and ease-of-use.
SOPC Builder System-Level Integration Tool
SOPC Builder eliminates manual system integration tasks and allows you to focus on custom user logic design to differentiate your system. All versions of the Altera® Quartus II design software include the SOPC Builder system generation tool.
SignalTap II Embedded Logic Analyzer
The SignalTap® II logic analyzer is a system-level debugging tool that captures and displays real-time signal behavior in a system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC), allowing you to observe interactions between hardware and software in system designs.
Quartus II software including SOPC Builder and SignalTap II logic analyzer
MegaCore IP Library
You can choose from Altera's comprehensive MegaCore® intellectual property (IP) library of peripheral functions such as integrated design environments (IDEs), UARTs, interrupt controllers, and PCI bus bridges to build a custom function optimized for specific applications.
Altera's rapidly growing portfolio of standard bus interfaces allows you to add chip-to-chip, board-to-board, or box-to-box connectivity to SOPC designs. The microsystems portfolio also includes megafunctions to seamlessly add external memory, Ethernet interfaces, PCI, PCIe, USB, and next-generation processor interfaces.
Development Kits
Altera offers a portfolio of feature-rich and easy-to-use Nios II processor development kits. These kits provide everything you need to create total SOPC solutions. Visit the embedded development kit page.
