POLL: Nios vs. Microblaze

[cube007]

nios vs microblaze

Hello elektrodians,

The advantages and disadvantage of Nios and Microblaze were discussed several times in this forum in many different threads. I would like to collect your experiences and thoughts about this topic here.

For a student project I would like to use a Soft-Processor like the Nios from Altera or the Microblaze from Xilinx. But this is a very new field of activity for me, so it is hard to choose. At my university several projects have been made with Nios so I think Altera would be a good choice. But what do you think?

The following topics would be interested for people who have to choose between Altera and Xilinx:

1. Support (How fast and good is it?)
2. Third Party Tools (E.g. which OS-Systems do support Nios and/or Microblaze? What’s the price for it?)
3. Space (How much space does an implementation need in an FPGA?)
4. Development Suites (What about the handling of the Software Suites from Altera and Xilinx?)
5. Speed (How fast are the implementations?)
6. Period of vocational adjustment (How long does it take to do the first prosperous work?)
7. Needed Tools (Which tools are needed for an implementation? Are these tools free?)


Bye,
cube007

 

[1011]

microblaze vs nios

In my experience I found that for the Microblaze you can find a lot of examples and OS portings free of charge, for the NIOS all is by money, also for the uClinux portings.

 

[Git]

microblaze nios

I'm really impressed with microblaze, and even more impressed with the gnu gcc compiler and the MB assembler.

Real world example :

(val =9)
The C :

int SetBit(Xuint32 addr, Xuint32 val)
{
Xuint32 temp, pmask, nmask;

pmask = 0;
pmask = 1 << (31 - val);
nmask = ~pmask;
temp = XGpio_mGetDataReg(addr);
temp = temp | pmask;
XGpio_mSetDataReg(addr, temp);
}

The produced assembler :
clks code

2 lw r4,r0,r5
1 rsubik r6,r6,31
1 addik r3,r0,1 # 0x1
2 bsll r3,r3,r6
1 or r4,r4,r3
2 sw r4,r0,r5
2 lw r3,r0,r5
2 rtsd r15, 8

That's effectively 6 lines of C plus func declaration and local vars turning into 8 lines of assembler and executing in 13 clock cycles. I'd be interested to see how many clock cycles the NIOS takes for the same C source code. All vars are 32 bit, the function calls are macros which do a bit of pointer casting and read/write a memory mapped peripheral addr. GCC optimisation level was 2.

Git

 

[jjljajp]

microblaze vs nios ii

Hi,

I am using mBlaze. At the beginning it would be very difficult to get into it. When you start nothing will work, including examples and tutorials. If you have some knowledge in this filed, you could make it work.

Apart from these, MBlase is good. It has lot of features(ofcourse, with bugs).

Xilinx has a practice of releasing a version with lots of bus & followed by many service packs. So, you can not settle with a particular environment to work. Before you complete a project there will be lot of service packes.

The Knowledge base for MBlaze on the net is good. You do not have to depend on xilinx.


NJ

 

[dreeke]

nios microblaze

Hi,

I use BOTH Nios and Microblaze.

I started out with Nios. This was a really easy job. The tools and wizzards are good. Attaching your own hardware to Nios is extremely easy: you just select the interfacing which fits best from within the wizzard. Writing and debugging software is also verry simple. Good documentation.

Now I am working with Microblaze. The startup is not easy at all! It took me quite some time to get familiar with the different busses, different endianness and to find out which doc's to read. There is no document which handles a complete system from scratch. You need to write a slave device if you want to attach your own hardware. Lucky for me I have a verry good FAE who helps me.

My conclusion is that Nios is simple and works fine. It's no rocket though.
Microblaze is much more complex, but I guess that if you are used to powerpc then you would think differently.

Dreeke

 

[agata]

microblaze versus nios

Hi,
I am starting to work with a PowerPc and I am not experienced with embedded processors. I would like to ask: "when will examples start to work?".
I have a lot of examples that do not work at this moment. Have you something to suggest me? I am lost with the variety of Xilinx/EDK service pack.

thank you!

 

[dreeke]

microblaze from the scratch

I have used several evaluationboards and every board had its errors. If you are using an evaluationboard then I suggest you to contact your FAE. For me this was the only way to make things work.

Good luck.

Dreeke

 

[agata]

microblaze custom instruction

Oh, yes....the FAE for my evaluation board takes more than 15 days to answer me.

 

[khaila]

migrating from nios to microblaze

Hi,

I use BOTH Nios and Microblaze.

I started out with Nios. This was a really easy job. The tools and wizzards are good. Attaching your own hardware to Nios is extremely easy: you just select the interfacing which fits best from within the wizzard. Writing and debugging software is also verry simple. Good documentation.

Now I am working with Microblaze. The startup is not easy at all! It took me quite some time to get familiar with the different busses, different endianness and to find out which doc's to read. There is no document which handles a complete system from scratch. You need to write a slave device if you want to attach your own hardware. Lucky for me I have a verry good FAE who helps me.

My conclusion is that Nios is simple and works fine. It's no rocket though.
Microblaze is much more complex, but I guess that if you are used to powerpc then you would think differently.

Dreeke

I am agree with you completly.
MicroBlaze is so complicated than NIOS-II.

The GUI of MZ is so diffecult to use than NS.
The concept of NS will let eveyone, even Software Engineer to build every enviroment that he needs without involving the Hardware Engineer.

 

[prabhu36]

nios power pc microblaze

Hello friends
I think nios is some what better than microblaze.Becoze its tramandrous growth and custom instruction future make it to new heights to the technologies.But it has less number of projects and examples.I excpect some mor nubers.k fine
I

 

[fateh_khan]

nios ii microblaze

I hav just started working with microblaze..its pretty complex to get into it....if someboody could help me out about the appropriate starting tutorials and the introductory stuff... i'll be extrmely grateful.....my email is fateh_khan@hotmail.com.........thanx