Altera is focused on giving automotive manufacturers a competitive edge with embedded processor solutions that are currently used in navigation, telematics, car radio, body controller, and other automotive applications.
Altera's FPGA, CPLD, and HardCopy® ASIC design software is integrated with a complete embedded design environment. In one integrated package, you get all the tools you need to win in this highly competitive market. Altera's embedded solution, seen in Figure 1, provides a cost-effective, flexible, and high-performance alternative to various microcontrollers available in the market.
Figure 1. Altera's Embedded Solution
Nios II Embedded Processor
The Nios® II family of embedded processors is Altera's second-generation soft core embedded processor for FPGAs. The Nios II processor implements a 32-bit instruction set based on a RISC architecture. Nios II processors can be easily combined with user logic and then programmed into an Altera® FPGA targeting a wide range of automotive applications. Because it is a soft core processor, you can choose from several system configurations, picking the best-fit CPU core and creating an exact-fit solution. Additional system performance can be achieved by using the Nios II C-to-Hardware (C2H) Acceleration Compiler. Furthermore, the Nios II soft core processor is easily ported to new or future FPGAs, making it an obsolete-proof microcontroller architecture.
Nios II embedded processors feature world-class software development tools. The Nios II development kits contain all the hardware and software development tools needed for embedded system development, including the Qsys system integration tool and the Nios II Software Studio.
SoC FPGAs with Dual-Core ARM Cortex-A9 Processor
ARM-based SoC FPGAs let you reduce system power, system cost, and board space by integrating a hard processor system (HPS) – consisting of a processor, peripherals, and a memory controller – with the FPGA fabric using a high-bandwidth interconnect backbone. The combination of the HPS with Altera's 28-nm LP fabric provide the performance and ecosystem of an applications-class ARM® processor with the flexibility, low cost, and low power consumption of the Cyclone® V FPGAs.
To learn more about how you can leverage the Nios II processor, ARM processor, and Qsys system integration tool to build your next-generation automotive electronic system, refer to our embedded processor solutions page.
