What architectural elements are found in Nios II processor cores?
The Nios II processor family provide the basic architectural elements found in most modern 32-bit processors, including: • 32-bit instruction size • 32-bit data and address paths • 32 general-purpose registers • 32 external interrupt sources • Configurable instruction cache • Configurable data cache • Common interface to up to 256 custom instructions • Common interface for the integration of custom peripherals What are custom instructions? Custom instructions are user-added hardware blocks that augment the arithmetic logic unit (ALU) of a CPU. Nios II processors fully support the use of custom instructions, allowing you to fine-tune your system hardware to meet performance goals. You can create up to 256 custom instructions per Nios II processor core used in the system. Similar to native Nios II instructions, custom instruction logic can take values from up to two source registers and optionally write back a result to a destination register.
