Embedded Software Developer Center

Altera is a strong Linux community participant and supporter. Altera contributes to many Linux open-source projects.

Rocketboards.org is where Altera publishes the Linux-based Golden System Reference designs for the SoC Development Kits, including information on how to use the prebuilt binaries, and also how to build all the required system components. It is also a collaboration site, where Altera, partners and customers share information, including application notes and various example designs.

Rocket Boards Getting Started provides the following resources:

• Golden System Reference Designs
• Bootloader Information
• Configuring FPGA Fabric from Linux
• Remote System Update Example Designs
• Agilex® SoC Secure Boot Demo Design

SoC FPGA Linux Development Repository on GitHub

• Linux Kernel GitHub Repo

• Bare-metal considerations and alternatives
• Instructions for creating, building, and debugging bare-metal projects
• Use Arm* Development Studio Intel SoC FPGA Edition
• Use Hardware Abstraction Library (HWLibs)
• Bare-metal project examples

• Design examples
• Building and debugging hardware designs and software applications

• Hardware abstraction layer (HAL) library for Nios V processor
• Using HAL library for creating bare-metal projects
• Backward compatible with Nios II processor's HAL library
• Ashling RiscFree IDE for Altera FPGAs
• Available design examples

Operating systems enable you to take full advantage of processor capabilities and can also improve development speed. A number of third party operating systems are available for Altera SoC FPGAs.

• Available SoC bootloaders
• Licensing considerations
• Advantages of each bootloader
• Additional reference materials

The Nios II soft processor adds flexibility to all FPGA designs.

Intel FPGA SDK for OpenCL enables software developers to accelerate their applications by targeting heterogeneous platforms with Intel CPUs and FPGAs.