Nios® II processor, the world's most versatile processor, according to Gartner Research, is the most widely used soft processor in the FPGA industry. The Nios II processor delivers unprecedented flexibility for your cost-sensitive, real-time, safety-critical (DO-254), ASIC-optimized, and applications processing needs. The Nios II processor supports all Intel® FPGA and SoC families.

What makes the Nios II processor the world's most versatile processor?

Find out more details on the Nios II processor:

 

Application

 Nios II
Processor Core

 

Vendor

 

Description
Power and cost sensitive Nios II economy core Intel With as low as 600 logic elements, the Nios II economy processor core is ideal for microcontroller applications. The Nios II economy processor core, software tools, and device drivers are offered free of charge.
Real time Nios II fast core Intel

Absolutely deterministic, jitter free real-time performance with unique hardware real-time feature options

  • Vector Interrupt Controller
  • Tightly Coupled Memory
  • Custom instructions
    (ability to use FPGA hardware to accelerate a function)
  • Supported by industry-leading real-time operating systems (RTOS)
  • Nios II processor is the ideal real-time processor to use with DSP Builder-based hardware accelerators to provide deterministic, high performance real-time results
Applications processing Nios II fast core Intel With a simple configuration option, the Nios II fast processor core can use a memory management unit (MMU) to run embedded Linux* operating system. Both open source and commercially supported versions of Linux for Nios II processors are available.
Intel FPGA Embedded Alliance
Safety critical Nios II SC core HCell Certify your design for DO-254 compliance by using the Nios II safety critical procesor core along with the DO-254 compliance design services offered by HCell.

Lockstep

Dual Core

 Lockstep Solution Intel Utilize the flexibility of the Nios II processor and Intel's lockstep technology to provide systems with high diagnostic coverage, self-checking and advanced diagnostic features in full compliance with functional safety standards IEC 61508 and ISO 26262.

Get Started Now

Start your design today with the Nios II processor by purchasing one of the many low-cost evaluation or development kits available for the Nios II processor.

To ship designs featuring the Nios II processor, you will need to purchase a license for the Nios II processor.

Table 1. Processor Performance (DMIPS* at Fmax by Device)

Devices Nios II /e
Economy		 Nios II /f
Fast
Cyclone® IV GX 
(DMIPS(1) at MHz)

30 at
175 MHz

 190 at
165 MHz
Cyclone V GX
(DMIPS(1) at MHz)

33 at

220 MHz

192 at

170 MHz
Arria® V GX 
(DMIPS(1) at MHz)

37.5 at

250MHz

226 at

200 MHz
Intel Arria I0 GX 
(DMIPS(1) at MHz)

52.5 at

350 MHz

305 at

270MHz
Stratix® V 
(DMIPS(1) at MHz)		 54 at
420 MHz		 385 at
350 MHz
Notes:

1. Dhrystones 2.1 benchmark

For more information, please see the Nios II Performance Benchmarks Datasheet (PDF)

Notes for Table 1 :

  1. Dhrystones 2.1 benchmark

For more information, please see the Nios II Performance Benchmarks Datasheet (PDF)

More Details on Nios II:

Related Links