Nios II Custom Instruction User Guide

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ID 683242
Date 4/27/2020
Public
Document Table of Contents
Document Table of Contents x
1. Nios II Custom Instruction Overview 2. Custom Instruction Hardware Interface 3. Custom Instruction Software Interface 4. Design Example: Cyclic Redundancy Check 5. Introduction to Nios® II Floating Point Custom Instructions 6. Nios II Floating Point Hardware 2 Component 7. Nios® II Floating Point Hardware (FPH1) Component 8. Document Revision History for Nios II Custom Instruction User Guide
1. Nios II Custom Instruction Overview x
1.1. Custom Instruction Implementation
1.1. Custom Instruction Implementation x
1.1.1. Custom Instruction Hardware Implementation 1.1.2. Custom Instruction Software Implementation
2. Custom Instruction Hardware Interface x
2.1. Custom Instruction Types
2.1. Custom Instruction Types x
2.1.1. Combinational Custom Instructions 2.1.2. Multicycle Custom Instructions 2.1.3. Extended Custom Instructions 2.1.4. Internal Register File Custom Instructions 2.1.5. External Interface Custom Instructions
2.1.1. Combinational Custom Instructions x
2.1.1.1. Combinational Custom Instruction Ports 2.1.1.2. Combinational Custom Instruction Timing
2.1.2. Multicycle Custom Instructions x
2.1.2.1. Multicycle Custom Instruction Ports 2.1.2.2. Multicycle Custom Instruction Timing
2.1.3. Extended Custom Instructions x
2.1.3.1. Extended Custom Instruction Timing
2.1.4. Internal Register File Custom Instructions x
2.1.4.1. Internal Register File Custom Instruction Example 2.1.4.2. Internal Register File Custom Instruction Ports
3. Custom Instruction Software Interface x
3.1. Custom Instruction Software Examples 3.2. Built-in Functions and User-defined Macros 3.3. Custom Instruction Assembly Language Interface
3.2. Built-in Functions and User-defined Macros x
3.2.1. Built-in Functions with No Return Value 3.2.2. Built-in Functions that Return a Value of Type Int 3.2.3. Built-in Functions that Return a Value of Type Float 3.2.4. Built-in Functions that Return a Pointer Value
3.3. Custom Instruction Assembly Language Interface x
3.3.1. Custom Instruction Assembly Language Syntax 3.3.2. Custom Instruction Assembly Language Examples 3.3.3. Custom Instruction Word Format
3.3.3. Custom Instruction Word Format x
3.3.3.1. Select Index Field (N)
4. Design Example: Cyclic Redundancy Check x
4.1. Building the CRC Example Hardware 4.2. Building the CRC Example Software
4.1. Building the CRC Example Hardware x
4.1.1. Setting up the Environment for the CRC Example Design 4.1.2. Opening the Component Editor 4.1.3. Specifying the Custom Instruction Component Type 4.1.4. Displaying the Custom Instruction Block Symbol 4.1.5. Adding the CRC Custom Instruction HDL Files 4.1.6. Configuring the Custom Instruction Parameter Type 4.1.7. Setting Up the CRC Custom Instruction Interfaces 4.1.8. Configuring the Custom Instruction Signal Type 4.1.9. Saving and Adding the CRC Custom Instruction 4.1.10. Generating and Compiling the CRC Example System
4.1.7. Setting Up the CRC Custom Instruction Interfaces x
4.1.7.1. Specifying Additional Interfaces
4.2. Building the CRC Example Software x
4.2.1. Running and Analyzing the CRC Example Software 4.2.2. Using the User-defined Custom Instruction Macro
4.2.1. Running and Analyzing the CRC Example Software x
4.2.1.1. Output of the CRC Design Example Software Run on a Cyclone V E FPGA Development Kit using the Intel® Quartus® Prime Software v15.1.
5. Introduction to Nios® II Floating Point Custom Instructions x
5.1. Floating Point Background 5.2. IEEE 754 Format 5.3. Rounding Schemes 5.4. Special Floating Point Cases
5.2. IEEE 754 Format x
5.2.1. Unit in the Last Place 5.2.2. Floating Point Value Encoding
5.3. Rounding Schemes x
5.3.1. Nearest Rounding 5.3.2. Truncation Rounding 5.3.3. Faithful Rounding 5.3.4. Rounding Examples
6. Nios II Floating Point Hardware 2 Component x
6.1. Overview of the Floating Point Hardware 2 Component 6.2. Floating Point Hardware 2 IEEE 754 Compliance 6.3. IEEE 754 Exception Conditions with FPH2 6.4. Floating Point Hardware 2 Operations 6.5. Building the FPH2 Example Hardware 6.6. Building the FPH2 Example Software 6.7. FPH2 Implementation of GCC Options 6.8. Nios II FPH2 and the Newlib Library 6.9. C Macros for round(), fmins(), and fmaxs()
6.6. Building the FPH2 Example Software x
6.6.1. FPH2 and Nios II GCC 6.6.2. Floating Point Hardware 2 Conversions 6.6.3. Nios II FPH2 Software Options
6.6.3. Nios II FPH2 Software Options x
6.6.3.1. -mcustom-<operation> 6.6.3.2. Nios II FPH2 Pragmas 6.6.3.3. -mcustom-fpu-cfg
6.7. FPH2 Implementation of GCC Options x
6.7.1. -fno-math-errno 6.7.2. -fsingle-precision-constant 6.7.3. -funsafe-math-optimizations 6.7.4. -ffinite-math-only 6.7.5. -fno-trapping-math 6.7.6. -frounding-math
7. Nios® II Floating Point Hardware (FPH1) Component x
7.1. Creating the FPH1 Example Hardware 7.2. Adding FPH1 to the Design and Configuring the Device 7.3. Building the FPH1 Example Software 7.4. Nios II FPH1 and the Newlib Library 7.5. Assessing Your Floating Point Optimization Needs 7.6. Hardware Divide Considerations with FPH1
7.3. Building the FPH1 Example Software x
7.3.1. Creating the FPH1 Software Project 7.3.2. Running and Analyzing the FPH1 Example Software 7.3.3. Software Implementation for FPH1
1. Nios II Custom Instruction Overview
2. Custom Instruction Hardware Interface
3. Custom Instruction Software Interface
4. Design Example: Cyclic Redundancy Check
5. Introduction to Nios® II Floating Point Custom Instructions
6. Nios II Floating Point Hardware 2 Component
7. Nios® II Floating Point Hardware (FPH1) Component
8. Document Revision History for Nios II Custom Instruction User Guide

6.5. Building the FPH2 Example Hardware

To instantiate the FPH2 component in your system, in Platform Designer, locate the Floating Point Hardware 2 component in the Project area of the Component Library. The FPH2 component is located under the “Embedded Processors” group in the Component Library.

The FPH2 component editor, shown in the figure below, allows you to selectively enable any of several groups of floating point custom instructions. By default, all instructions are enabled.

Figure 22. FPH2 Component Editor

In most cases, you should leave all floating point custom instructions enabled. However, for the MAX 10 device family in certain configurations, you might need to disable the Roots group.

MAX 10 devices cannot support the FPH2 square root instruction in the following configurations:

  • Dual configuration mode
  • Compressed configuration mode
  • External RAM initialization disabled

The square root instruction uses a lookup table, requiring initialization that the MAX 10 cannot support in these configurations. Turn off the Roots option if you are targeting a MAX 10 device in one of these configurations.

When you disable one of the floating point instruction groups, software must implement the functions in that group (in this case, square root) if they are required. The BSP generator automatically creates this support. Refer to "Building the FPH2 Example Software" for details.

The figure below shows Platform Designer with Nios II connected to the FPH2. The FPH2 has two slaves (s1 and s2). One slave is for the combinatorial custom instruction and the other slave is for the multi-cycle custom instruction. Connect both slaves to the Nios II custom_instruction_master by clicking the dot in the connections patch panel. The following figure shows how the connection should look.
Figure 23. FPH2 Component in Platform Designer

The example in the figure above targets a MAX 10 device. Note the warning message, reminding you that there could be an issue with RAM initialization for the square root function.

After connecting the FPH2 to the Nios II, generate your system in Platform Designer as you normally would. Then use the Intel® Quartus® Prime software to compile the generated RTL, or use an RTL simulator, like ModelSim* - Intel® FPGA Edition, to perform simulations.

Note: If you use the Nios II software build tools (SBT) to create your software projects, the BSP generator creates a custom newlib library for your floating point hardware. If you modify your floating point hardware configuration, you must regenerate and rebuild your BSP to ensure that newlib is built correctly. For details, refer to "Building the FPH2 Example Software".
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