Alternative Nios® II Boot Methods

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The Alternative Nios II Boot Methods design example provides two software examples of custom boot copiers for the Nios II processor. The software examples are designed to run on the Nios II Ethernet Standard design example. AN458: Alternative Nios II Boot Methods (PDF) describes the details of the two boot copiers.

Advanced Boot Copier

The advanced boot copier example is designed to provide additional features over the default Nios II boot copier. It supports two separate boot images stored in CFI or EPCS flash devices. The software example is written in C and is heavily commented, making it easy to customize. It supports status messages using a JTAG UART and performs error-checking on the boot image data. It can be run either out of CFI flash or out of on-chip memory.

Small Boot Copier

The small boot copier example is a minimal program designed to use very little program memory. The small boot copier supports only one boot image, does not perform any error checking, and does not support printing messages to the JTAG UART.

Using This Design Example

The use of this design is governed by, and subject to, the terms and conditions of the Intel® Design Example License Agreement.

Hardware Requirements

The software examples are designed to run on the Nios II Ethernet Standard design example. The Nios II Ethernet Standard design example page of the Intel® website contains the hardware design files for a number of Intel® FPGA development boards. Navigate to the web page and locate the Nios II Ethernet Standard design example .zip file that corresponds to your board.

Related Links

For more information about using this example in your project, go to: