I am new to NIOS II. Need help for my requirement.

I am using Altera Arria II GX FPGA, 5AGXMA5G4F35C5N. I would like to run NIOS soft core in this FPGA.
I would like to have Ethernet 100MB and M.2 PCIe x 4 interface. I am hardware engineer hence I have no knowledge of NIOS, hence your inputs highly appreciated.

Does NIOS II support Ethernet 100MB and M.2 PCIe x 4 interface? What is the maximum ethernet speed I can achieve?
Is it possible to implement both MAC & PHY inside FPGA using NIOS?

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Thre is typo error. I am using Arria V

niks said:

I am using Altera Arria II GX FPGA, 5AGXMA5G4F35C5N. I would like to run NIOS soft core in this FPGA.
I would like to have Ethernet 100MB and M.2 PCIe x 4 interface. I am hardware engineer hence I have no knowledge of NIOS, hence your inputs highly appreciated.

Does NIOS II support Ethernet 100MB and M.2 PCIe x 4 interface? What is the maximum ethernet speed I can achieve?
Is it possible to implement both MAC & PHY inside FPGA using NIOS?

Click to expand...

There is special Altera IP for Ethernet (unfortunately paid), NIOS is mainly used to load the registers (IP address, timings, etc.) and to handle the communications on higher level. With this Ethernet IP you could achieve 1Gb/s data transfers even on much smaller FPGAs.

luben111 said:

There is special Altera IP for Ethernet (unfortunately paid), NIOS is mainly used to load the registers (IP address, timings, etc.) and to handle the communications on higher level. With this Ethernet IP you could achieve 1Gb/s data transfers even on much smaller FPGAs.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the reply. I could get the required Ethernet IP. Do you have the link where I could get more information about it?
My design is almost finish, however, I would like to have provision for the NIOS + Ethernet IP + PCIex4 M.2 interface IP. I may need to add DDR3 interface for that. Could you tell me if any other interface required?
With NIOS do I get the flexibility to assign DDR3 to any ports?

niks said:

Thank you for the reply. I could get the required Ethernet IP. Do you have the link where I could get more information about it?

Click to expand...

Maybe you should go to Altera's web site, they have documentation on their parts and their IP cores.

niks said:

My design is almost finish, however, I would like to have provision for the NIOS + Ethernet IP + PCIex4 M.2 interface IP. I may need to add DDR3 interface for that. Could you tell me if any other interface required?
With NIOS do I get the flexibility to assign DDR3 to any ports?

Click to expand...

The DDR3 will likely have very specific requirements of which pins are used and the number of outputs in a given bank and the number adjacent pins that are all outputs. You should read the documentation on the DDR3 IP core before finishing the board, better yet run the Quartus tools to generate a DDR3 design and pick the banks that the DDR3 reside on and have the tools select the pins to use.

To get working Ethernet IP you need the full (subscribed) version of Quartus + IP . When you buy the Quartus from some Altera dealer you can also get detailed information and support. The Altera dealers can answer many of your questions and also support your development, they can also connect you to some Altera certified developes. The dealers can also give you some temporary license (free of charge, for limited period of time) for the Ethernet IP - in this case you get fully functional FPGA only when connected with JTAG to the PC (very good for testing but can't be distributed).
In short - for what you're trying to achieve the best way is to call your local Altera dealer, otherwise you could spend months and months in development without any success.