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The Ashling RiscFree IDE for Altera® FPGAs

Overview

Ashling RiscFree IDE

The Ashling RiscFree IDE for Altera® FPGAs is the integrated development environment for creating embedded applications on an Arm*-based hard processor system and Nios V soft processors. This IDE delivers homogenous and heterogeneous multi-processor design, and debug capabilities. Currently, supported key features include:

  • Included with Quartus Prime Software Pro version 22.2 onwards or available as a standalone free download for embedded software developers.
  • Full toolchain, including Ashling RiscFree for Altera FPGAs IDE, Compiler, Debugger, and Trace.
  • IDE based on Eclipse with full source and project creation, editing, build and debug support.
  • Run-time debug with support for the Altera FPGA Download Cable II (USB Blaster II).
  • Register visualization for Nios V processors and Arm cores.
  • Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) debug awareness.
Ashling RiscFree IDE User Guide

New Ashling Visual Studio Code Extension

A flexible development environment with Ashling Visual Studio Code extension

Install the Extension

Benefits

Accelerated Development Setup

  • Intuitive GUI-based debug configuration eliminates complex command-line setups.
  • Auto-detection of devices and cores saves time in project initialization.
  • Seamless CMake integration enables direct import and build of Nios V projects.
  • Quick BSP and application generation support for Nios V.

Comprehensive Debug Capabilities

  • Full runtime debug support for Arm HPS and Nios V cores via USB-Blaster II.
  • Essential debug views (Registers, Memory, Variables, etc.) in one unified interface.
  • Advanced RTOS-aware debugging for FreeRTOS and Zephyr through Embedded Tools.
  • QEMU simulator support for testing without physical hardware.

Enhanced Development Experience

  • Custom instruction support with easy XML file browsing for RISC-V.
  • Flexible source code mapping for distributed development environments.
  • WSL compatibility for Linux development in a Windows environment.
  • Complete visibility into peripheral registers for hardware-software integration.

Embedded Operating Systems

Operating System

Availability

HAL

Shipped in Quartus

uC/OS-II

Shipped in Quartus

FreeRTOS

Shipped in Quartus

Zephyr

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