Visible to Intel only — GUID: cdf1691736930434
Ixiasoft
Visible to Intel only — GUID: cdf1691736930434
Ixiasoft
4.3.9.4. Tightly Coupled Memory
Tightly coupled memory (TCM) guarantees fixed low-latency memory access for performance-critical applications. The advantages of TCM over cache memory are as follows:
- Performance similar to cache memory
- Software can guarantee that performance-critical code or data is located in TCM
- No real-time caching overhead, such as loading, invalidating, or flushing memory
Physically, a TCM is a dedicated on-chip memory within the Nios® V processor core. Intel implements TCM using the M20K memory blocks. The Nios® V processor architecture supports four TCMs for instruction access and data access (two per access type). Each TCM provide an AXI4-Lite interface for connection with an external master, or manager. The interconnect allows you to connect Avalon® or other supported manager, gaining access to read or write the respective TCMs.