Nios II Classic Software Developer’s Handbook

ID 683282
Date 5/14/2015
Public
Document Table of Contents

5.1. Getting Started with the Hardware Abstraction Layer

The easiest way to get started using the HAL is to create a software project. In the process of creating a new project, you also create a HAL BSP. You do not need to create or copy HAL files, nor edit any of the HAL source code. The Nios II SBT generates the HAL BSP for you.

For an example on creating a simple Nios II HAL software project, refer to the “Getting Started with Nios II Software in Eclipse” chapter.

In the Nios II SBT command line, you can create an example BSP based on the HAL using one of the create-this-bsp scripts supplied with the Nios II Embedded Design Suite.

If you do not have a custom Nios II system, you can base your project on an Intel FPGA-provided example hardware system. In fact, you can first start developing projects targeting an Intel FPGA development board, and later re-target the project to a custom board. You can easily change the target hardware system later.

For more information about creating a new project with the Nios II SBT command line, refer to either:
  • “Getting Started with Nios II Software in Eclipse” section or
  • "Getting Started from the Command Line" section