Nios II and Embedded IP Release Notes

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RN-1138 | 2020.12.14

Version Information

Updated for:
Intel® Quartus® Prime Design Suite 20.4

1. About this Document

This document provides information about the following in context to the Intel^® Quartus^® Prime software version:

Nios^® II Embedded Design Suite (EDS)
Nios^® II Processor IP
Embedded IP cores

This document covers Nios^® II release information for the Intel^® Quartus^® Prime software version 16.1 and later. For any previous release information, refer to the Nios II Embedded Design Suite Release Notes (Archived).

2. Nios II Embedded Design Suite (EDS)

Table 1. Release Information for Nios^® II EDS
Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Software Version	Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Variant	Updates
20.4	Pro Edition	Nios^® II Toolchain upgrades for Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition: gcc mpfr Commercial version of MicroC/OS-II is under Apache 2.0 Open-Source Licensing, for more information refer to the Micrium Licensing Webpage.
20.1.1	Standard Edition	Nios^® II Toolchain upgrades for Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Standard Edition: gcc gdb gmp mpfr ncurses newlib
20.3	Pro Edition	Nios^® II Toolchain upgrades for Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition: binutils gcc gdb
20.2	Pro Edition	Nios^® II Toolchain upgrades for Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition: gcc gmp ncurses newlib
20.1	Pro and Standard Edition	Nios^® II Toolchain upgrades for Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition: binutils expat gcc gdb mpfr Nios^® II Toolchain upgrades for Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Standard Edition: binutils expat gcc gdb mpfr
19.4	Pro Edition	Nios^® II Toolchain upgrades for Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition: expat
19.3	Pro Edition	Nios^® II Toolchain upgrades for Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition: expat The cloog library is removed from toolchain for the Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition.
19.2	Pro Edition	In the Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition, the Windows* version of Nios^® II EDS, Cygwin has been removed and replaced with Windows Subsystem for Linux* (WSL). For installation instructions, refer to the Installing Windows* Subsystem for Linux* (WSL) on Windows* sections in the Nios^® II Software Developer Handbook. Known Issue: wslpath: < Nios^® II EDS installation directory or Nios^® II project directory> No such file or directory Nios^® II Toolchain upgrades for Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition: binutils expat gcc gdb isl mpc mpfr ncurses newlib
19.1	Pro and Standard Edition	You must manually install Eclipse from the Eclipse download page to get the Nios^® II development environment running. Note: Nios^® II Eclipse plug-ins are delivered in Intel^® Quartus^® Prime with the necessary installer and readme files. For installation instructions, refer to the Installing Eclipse IDE into Nios^® II EDS section in the Nios^® II Software Developer Handbook. Nios^® II Toolchain upgrades for Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Standard Edition: binutils expat gcc gdb gmp isl mpc mpfr ncurses newlib The cloog library is removed from toolchain for the Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Standard Edition. In the Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Standard Edition, the Windows* version of Nios^® II EDS, Cygwin has been removed and replaced with Windows Subsystem for Linux* (WSL). For installation instructions, refer to the Installing Windows* Subsystem for Linux* (WSL) on Windows* sections in the Nios^® II Software Developer Handbook. Known issue: nios2-elf-gcc.exe: error: CreateProcess: No such file or directory
18.1	Pro and Standard Edition	Nios^® II Toolchain upgrades for Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition: gcc
18.0	Pro and Standard Edition	Nios^® II Toolchain upgrades for Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition: binutils gcc gdb gmp isl mpfr newlib
17.1	Pro and Standard Edition	Nios^® II Software Build Tools (SBT): Upgrade of Eclipse to v4.5 for Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition and Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Standard Edition New driver for Intel^® XWAY PHY11G PEF7071 Ethernet PHY for Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition and Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Standard Edition Nios^® II Software Build Tools (SBT): Windows 10 host support in Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition and Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Standard Edition software Nios^® II Toolchain upgrades for Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition: binutils expat gcc gdb gmp mpfr newlib Bug fix: Issue causing locale to be broken on newlib 2.4.0 when using smallc lib is fixed.
17.0	Pro and Standard Edition	Nios^® II Software Build Tools (SBT)—Windows 10 support added in Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition.
16.1	Pro and Standard Edition	Nios^® II Toolchain upgrades: gcc isl mpc mpfr Bug fixes: The handling of the -mgpopt=option setting has been changed. It is now under the full control of the BSP editor and there is a flag for it in the public.mk file. nios2-app-compile no longer fails when -mgpopt is set to "global" and loglevel is set to "-1". For more information about the GCC releases, refer to the GCC, the GNU Compiler Collection website.

2.1. Nios II Toolchain Versions

Table 2. Nios^® II Toolchain Versions for the Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition
Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition	Nios^® II Toolchain Versions
Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition	binutils	cloog	expat	gcc	gdb	gmp	isl	mpc	mpfr	ncurses	newlib
20.4	2.33.50	-	2.2.9	10.2.1	9.2.90	6.2.0	0.20	1.1.0	4.1.0	6.2	3.3.0
20.3	2.33.50	-	2.2.9	10.1.1	9.2.90	6.2.0	0.20	1.1.0	4.0.2	6.2	3.3.0
20.2	2.32.51	-	2.2.9	9.3.1	8.3.1	6.2.0	0.20	1.1.0	4.0.2	6.2	3.3.0
20.1	2.32.51	-	2.2.9	9.2.1	8.3.1	6.1.2	0.20	1.1.0	4.0.2	6.1	3.1.0
19.4	2.31.51	-	2.2.6	8.3.1	8.2.1	6.1.2	0.20	1.1.0	4.0.1	6.1	3.1.0
19.3	2.31.51	-	2.2.7	8.3.1	8.2.1	6.1.2	0.20	1.1.0	4.0.1	6.1	3.1.0
19.2	2.31.51	0.18.1	2.2.6	8.3.1	8.2.1	6.1.2	0.20	1.1.0	4.0.1	6.1	3.1.0
19.1	2.28.51	0.18.1	2.2.4	7.3.1	8.0.1	6.1.2	0.16.1	1.0.3	3.1.6	5.9	2.5.0
18.1	2.28.51	0.18.1	2.2.4	7.3.1	8.0.1	6.1.2	0.16.1	1.0.3	3.1.6	5.9	2.5.0
18.0	2.28.51	0.18.1	2.2.4	7.2.1	8.0.1	6.1.2	0.16.1	1.0.3	3.1.6	5.9	2.5.0
17.1	2.26.51	0.18.1	2.2.0	6.3.0	7.11.1	6.1.1	0.14	1.0.3	3.1.4	5.9	2.4.0
17.0	2.25	0.18.1	2.1.0	5.3	7.10	6.0.0	0.14	1.0.3	3.1.3	5.9	2.2
16.1	2.25	0.18.1	2.1.0	5.3	7.10	6.0.0	0.14	1.0.3	3.1.3	5.9	2.2
16.0	2.25	0.18.1	2.1.0	5.2	7.10	6.0.0	0.12.2	1.0.2	3.1.2	5.9	2.2

Table 3. Nios^® II Toolchain Versions for the Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Standard Edition
Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Standard Edition	Nios^® II Toolchain Versions
Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Standard Edition	binutils	cloog	expat	gcc	gdb	gmp	isl	mpc	mpfr	ncurses	newlib
20.1.1	2.33.50	-	2.2.9	10.1.1	9.2.90	6.2.0	0.20	1.1.0	4.0.2	6.2	3.3.0
20.1	2.32.51	-	2.2.9	9.2.1	8.3.1	6.1.2	0.20	1.1.0	4.0.2	6.1	3.1.0
19.1	2.31.51	-	2.2.7	8.3.1	8.2.1	6.1.2	0.20	1.1.0	4.0.1	6.1	3.1.0
18.1	2.25	0.18.1	2.1.0	5.3	7.10	6.0.0	0.14	1.0.3	3.1.3	5.9	2.2
18.0	2.25	0.18.1	2.1.0	5.3	7.10	6.0.0	0.14	1.0.3	3.1.3	5.9	2.2
17.1	2.25	0.18.1	2.1.0	5.3	7.10	6.0.0	0.14	1.0.3	3.1.3	5.9	2.2
17.0	2.25	0.18.1	2.1.0	5.3	7.10	6.0.0	0.14	1.0.3	3.1.3	5.9	2.2
16.1	2.25	0.18.1	2.1.0	5.3	7.10	6.0.0	0.14	1.0.3	3.1.3	5.9	2.2
16.0	2.25	0.18.1	2.1.0	5.2	7.10	6.0.0	0.12.2	1.0.2	3.1.2	5.9	2.2

3. Nios II Processor IP Core

Table 4. Release Information for Nios^® II Processor IP Core
Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Software Version	Key Updates
20.4	No change.
20.3
20.2
20.1
19.4	No change.
19.3
19.2
19.1
18.1	No change.
18.0	No change.
17.1	Added support for Intel^® Stratix^® 10 and Intel^® Cyclone^® 10 LP devices.
17.0	Added support for the Nios^® II processor in Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition, and Platform Designer.
16.1	The Nios^® II Processor is supported as a pre-release (beta) version in Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition because of the changes required to support IP components in Platform Designer. Nios^® II Classic is no longer supported in Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition.

For more information about the Nios^® II Processor core, refer to the Nios II Processor Reference Guide.

4. Embedded IP Cores

Table 5. Release Information for Embedded IP Cores
Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Software Version	Key Updates
20.4	No change.
20.3	No change.
20.2	Added a new parameter for eSPI to LPC Bridge Core.
20.1	Added support for new IP core in Intel^® Quartus^® Prime: Intel^® FPGA MII to RMII Converter Core.
19.4	No change.
19.3	No change.
19.2	No change.
19.1	Added support for new IP core in Intel^® Quartus^® Prime: Intel^® FPGA HPS EMAC to Multi-rate PHY GMII Adapter Core.
18.1	Added support for new IP core in Intel^® Quartus^® Prime: eSPI to LPC Bridge IP Core.
18.0	Added support for new IP core in Intel^® Quartus^® Prime: Intel^® eSPI Slave IP Core. Added a new parameter for Modular Scatter-Gather DMA Core.
17.1	mSGDMA optimizations for Intel^® Stratix^® 10 devices in Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition software version 17.1. CMSIS support for embedded IP in Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition softwareversion 17.1. EPCQA device support for EPCQ Controller and Generic QSPI Controller IP in Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Standard Edition software version 17.1. Bug Fix: Intel^® Avalon^® FIFO IP —Incorrect back pressure behavior during reset state and data loss when FIFO is almost full issue is fixed. Triple-Speed Ethernet (TSE) iniche driver to support mSGDMA updated. Redundant software example simple_socket_server_rgmii removed
17.0	Added new Streaming ( Avalon^® -ST) Freeze Bridges for Partial Reconfiguration (PR) support. New improved data performance Serial flash controller II and Generic Quad SPI controller II IP cores. Added Avalon^® -ST Freeze Bridges as PR solution IP. All Embedded IP cores now support Intel^® Cyclone^® 10 device compilation. Bug fixes: I²C Slave to Avalon^® -MM Master—MM master write data corruption due to overrun of internal I²C slave RX shifting logic issue fixed Intel FPGA Avalon^® FIFO IP —Incorrect back pressure behavior during reset state and data loss when FIFO is almost full issue fixed EPCQ Controller—Incorrect back pressure behavior during reset state issue fixed Generic QSPI Controller IP: Modified to enable support for multiple instances in one Platform Designer design. N25Q016 flash device now supported. Serial Flash Controller IP—EPCS4 flash device is now supported. The following IP cores (from Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Standard Edition) are not present in the Intel^® Quartus^® Prime Pro Edition: Intel FPGA Avalon^® New SDRAM Controller Intel FPGA SDRAM Tristate Controller Intel FPGA Avalon^® EPCS Flash Controller Intel FPGA Avalon^® Compact Flash Controller Intel FPGA Avalon^® Half Rate Bridge Intel FPGA Avalon^® Pixel Converter Intel FPGA Avalon^® Video Sync Generator Intel FPGA Avalon^® LCD 16207 Intel FPGA Avalon^® SGDMA Intel FPGA Avalon^® DMA Intel FPGA Modular ADC Intel FPGA SM Bus Controller
16.1	A new IP core named Avalon^® I²C Master has been added to the Platform Designer (Standard) library. The 16550 UART IP has been enhanced to support a user-defined TX FIFO level trigger. Freeze controller and bridges IPs have been added to the IP library.

For more information about the respective IP cores, refer to the Embedded Peripherals IP User Guide.

5. Document Revision History for Nios II and Embedded IP Release Notes

Document Version	Changes
2020.12.14	Added information for the Intel^® Quartus^® Prime software version 20.4.
2020.10.30	Added information for the Intel^® Quartus^® Prime software version 19.3 to 20.3.
2019.07.01	Added information for the Intel^® Quartus^® Prime software version 19.2.
2019.04.10	Added information for the Intel^® Quartus^® Prime software version 19.1.
2018.09.24	Added information for the Intel^® Quartus^® Prime software version 18.1.
2018.05.07	Added information for the Intel^® Quartus^® Prime software version 18.0
2017.12.05	Added information for the Intel^® Quartus^® Prime software version 17.1.
2017.05.08	Added information for the Intel^® Quartus^® Prime software version 17.0.
2016.11.07	Added information for the Intel^® Quartus^® Prime software version 16.1.