Wind River's Linux OS to support Altera's Nios II embedded processor

Wind River has announced the availability of Linux support for Altera's Nios II embedded processor. Embedded system developers deploying products based on the Nios II processor can use this Linux solution across Altera's entire portfolio of FPGAs and HardCopy ASICs.

Wind River's Linux solution for the Nios II processor is based on Linux 2.6 kernel technology, the GNU 4 tool chain and the Eclipse-based Wind River Workbench Development Suite. This solution adheres to well-known industry standards on Linux and tools and is customized to support the Nios II instruction set, the processor architecture and the custom instructions feature that can be implemented in the FPGA fabric to increase system performance.

"Together, Altera and Wind River have brought Linux support to the Nios II embedded processor on FPGAs," said Mike Langlois, general manager of networking solutions at Wind River. "Our customers can leverage a flexible hardware and software solution to create and bring to market faster, highly differentiated systems. The fact that the Nios II processor can run on all of Altera's FPGAs and HardCopy ASICs to enable a broad spectrum of solutions is well-matched to the needs of our customers who are looking to differentiate on price and performance."

This joint development framework offers FPGA based embedded developers an integrated, network-enabled processor-system reference design that boots Linux on power-up.

"As more customers adopt FPGA platforms to create product differentiation in ever bigger and more sophisticated systems, their software development needs increase and evolve," said Danny Biran, senior vice president of product and corporate marketing at Altera. "Our relationship with Wind River provides us with a partner who can support the broad and diverse needs of our global customers, and whose breadth and depth of software expertise complements our hardware expertise."

The Nios II embedded processor is a configurable processor, which can deliver up to 340 DMIPS of performance in FPGAs and can be implemented in a few cents worth of logic elements.

Availability: The Linux distribution, a Nios II/f-based processor-system reference design, and a BSP for the Altera Cyclone III FPGA Development Kit are available from Wind River. Customers interested in purchasing the Linux solution for use on Altera's Nios II embedded processor should contact Wind River at www.windriver.com.
To learn more about Altera's Nios II embedded processor, visit www.altera.com/nios2.