Nios II Performance Benchmarks
DS-1066 | 2020.05.14
1. Overview
This datasheet lists the performance and logic element (LE) usage for a typical implementation of a Nios® II soft processor and peripherals. Nios® II processors are configurable and designed for implementation in Intel® FPGAs. The following Nios® II processors cores were used for these benchmarks:1
- Nios® II/f—The Nios® II/f “fast” processor is designed for high performance and has the most configuration options, some of which are unavailable in the Nios® II/e processor.
- Nios® II/e—The Nios® II/e “economy” processor is designed for the smallest possible logic size while still providing adequate performance.
The default options for the Nios® II processor were chosen for these benchmarks, unless specified otherwise.
Note: Results may vary slightly
depending on the version of the
Intel®
Quartus® Prime
software, the version of the
Nios® II processor,
compiler version, target device and the configuration of the processor. Also, any
changes to the system logic design might change the performance and LE usage. All
results are generated from designs built using the Platform Designer tool.
The Dhrystone MIPS (DMIPS) reports were obtained using the Dhrystone 2.1 benchmark. You can download the Dhrystone 2.1 benchmark software with the Fast Nios® II Hardware Design Example on the Intel FPGA website. For more information about the Dhrystone 2.1 benchmark software and the Fast design example, refer to the readme.txt file which is included in the design example page.
The CoreMark software can be registered and downloaded at www.eembc.org.
Note: The
Nios® II Classic and
Nios® II benchmark data are very similar. The
Nios® II processor was used to create the systems which gave the data
values reported in this document. Please refer to the older versions of this
document for values associated with the Classic cores.
The resource utilization results were generated using moderate Analysis, Synthesis and Fitter settings in the Quartus Prime software. These results represent typical results.
| Benchmark | Nios® II Processor | I-Cache | D-Cache | Other options | Peripherals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| fmax | Nios® II/f | 4 Kbytes | 2 Kbytes |
|
|
| Nios® II/e | None | None |
|
|
|
| Logic size | Nios® II/f | 4 Kbytes | 2 Kbytes |
|
|
| Nios® II/e | None | None |
|
|
|
| DMIPS | Nios® II/f at 100 MHz | 4 Kbytes | 2 Kbytes |
|
|
| Nios® II/e at 100 MHz | - | - |
|
|
|
| CoreMark2 | Nios® II/f at 100 MHz | 32 Kbytes | 32 Kbytes |
|
|
| Nios® II/e at 100 MHz | - | - |
|
|
2 This benchmark is compiled with the gcc -o3
switch for optimised performance.
3 The RAM controller for the device is based on DDR3
SDRAM Controller with UniPHY. For
Intel®
Cyclone® 10,
Intel®
Arria® 10,
Intel®
Stratix® 10, and
Intel®
Agilex™
devices, the RAM
controller is based on the respective device IP.
2. Nios II Performance Benchmarks
| Device Family | Device OPN | Nios® II/f | Nios® II/e | Results are generated using |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel® Agilex™ | AGFA014R24A2E2VR0 | 400 | 410 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition software version 20.1 |
| Intel® Stratix® 10 | 1SG250LN3F43I2LG | 300 | 320 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition software version 20.1 |
| Stratix® V | 5SGXEA7N2F45C1 | 350 | 410 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition software version 19.1 |
| Stratix® IV | EP4S100G5H40I1 | 240 | 280 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition software version 19.1 |
| Intel® Arria® 10 | 10AX115U3F45I2LG | 290 | 340 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition software version 20.1 |
| Arria® V GZ | 5AGZME7K2F40C3 | 280 | 360 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition software version 19.1 |
| Arria® V | 5AGXFB5K4F40I3 | 200 | 260 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition software version 19.1 |
| Intel® Cyclone® 10 GX | 10CX220YF780E5G | 280 | 330 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition software version 20.1 |
| Intel® Cyclone® 10 LP | 10CL120YF780I7G | 140 | 160 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition software version 19.1 |
| Cyclone® V | 5CGXFC7D6F31C6 | 170 | 210 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition software version 19.1 |
| Cyclone® IV | EP4CGX30CF19C6 | 160 | 170 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition software version 19.1 |
| Intel® MAX® 10 | 10M50DAF484C6GES | 160 | 160 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition software version 19.1 |
| Device Family | Processor Core / Peripheral | Results are generated using | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nios® II/f | Nios® II/e | Nios® II JTAG debug module | Avalon UART | JTAG UART | SDRAM Controller4 | Timer | ||
| Intel® Agilex™ | 1002 | 596 | 149 | 57 | 71 | 5999 | 77 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition software version 20.1 |
| Intel® Stratix® 10 (ALM) | 1006 | 414 | 148 | 58 | 70 | 4429 | 76 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition software version 20.1 |
| Stratix® V (ALM) | 697 | 296 | 129 | 62 | 56 | 2635 | 68 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition software version 19.1 |
| Stratix® IV (ALUT) | 1073 | 527 | 169 | 95 | 112 | 3809 | 92 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition software version 19.1 |
| Intel® Arria® 10 (ALM) | 803 | 322 | 114 | 55 | 60 | 3973 | 60 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition software version 20.1 |
| Arria® V GZ (ALM) | 706 | 290 | 125 | 55 | 56 | 2632 | 54 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition software version 19.1 |
| Arria® V (ALM) | 835 | 310 | 126 | 56 | 56 | 2470 | 55 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition software version 19.1 |
| Intel® Cyclone® 10 GX (ALM) | 847 | 346 | 116 | 56 | 60 | 2291 | 55 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition software version 20.1 |
| Intel® Cyclone® 10 LP (LE) | 2326 | 838 | 464 | 141 | 163 | 435 | 148 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition software version 19.1 |
| Cyclone® V (ALM) | 848 | 305 | 127 | 56 | 57 | 2473 | 56 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition software version 19.1 |
| Cyclone® IV GX (ALUT) | 2221 | 772 | 352 | 143 | 160 | 424 | 138 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition software version 19.1 |
| Intel® MAX® 10 (LE) | 2211 | 790 | 364 | 136 | 157 | 4671 | 139 | Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition software version 19.1 |
| Performance Metric | Nios® II/f | Nios® II/e |
|---|---|---|
| DMIPS/MHz Ratio | 0.753 | 0.107 |
| CoreMark | 229.148 | 19.234 |
4 The RAM controller for the device is based on
DDR3 SDRAM Controller with UniPHY. For
Intel®
Cyclone® 10,
Intel®
Arria® 10,
Intel®
Stratix® 10, and
Intel®
Agilex™
devices, the RAM controller
is based on the respective device IP.
3. Document Revision History for Nios II Performance Benchmarks
| Document Version | Changes |
|---|---|
| 2020.05.14 |
|
| 2018.10.15 |
|
| 2017.12.18 |
|
| 2017.06.12 |
|
| 2016.06.24 |
|
| 2015.12.16 |
|