Embedded Peripherals IP User Guide

ID 683130
Date 10/24/2025
Public
Document Table of Contents
1. Introduction 2. Avalon® -ST Serial Peripheral Interface Core 3. SPI Core 4. SPI Agent/JTAG to Avalon® Host Bridge Cores 5. Intel eSPI Agent Core 6. eSPI to LPC Bridge Core 7. Ethernet MDIO Core 8. Intel FPGA 16550 Compatible UART Core 9. UART Core 10. Lightweight UART Core 11. JTAG UART Core 12. Intel FPGA Avalon® Mailbox Core 13. Intel FPGA Avalon® Mutex Core 14. Intel FPGA Avalon® I2C (Host) Core 15. Intel FPGA I2C Agent to Avalon® -MM Host Bridge Core 16. EPCS/EPCQA Serial Flash Controller Core 17. Intel FPGA Serial Flash Controller Core 18. Intel FPGA Serial Flash Controller II Core 19. Intel FPGA Generic QUAD SPI Controller Core 20. Intel FPGA Generic QUAD SPI Controller II Core 21. Interval Timer Core 22. Intel FPGA Avalon FIFO Memory Core 23. On-Chip Memory (RAM and ROM) Intel FPGA IP 24. On-Chip Memory II (RAM or ROM) Intel FPGA IP 25. PIO Core 26. PLL Cores 27. DMA Controller Core 28. Modular Scatter-Gather DMA Core 29. Scatter-Gather DMA Controller Core 30. Video Sync Generator and Pixel Converter Cores 31. Intel FPGA Interrupt Latency Counter Core 32. Performance Counter Unit Core 33. Vectored Interrupt Controller Core 34. System ID Peripheral Core 35. Intel FPGA GMII to RGMII Converter Core 36. HPS GMII to RGMII Adapter IP 37. Intel FPGA MII to RMII Converter Core 38. HPS GMII to TSE 1000BASE-X/SGMII PCS Bridge Core IP 39. Intel FPGA HPS EMAC to Multi-rate PHY GMII Adapter Core 40. Intel FPGA MSI to GIC Generator Core 41. Cache Coherency Translator IP 42. Altera ACE5-Lite Cache Coherency Translator

1.3. Driver Support

The following table shows a list of embedded IP cores that are supported with a Nios processor HAL driver.
IP Name Class Driver Name Platform Related Link
HAL MicroC /OS-II Free RTOS
SPI Core SPI altera_avalon_spi - Software Programming Model
16550 Compatible UART Core UART altera_16550_uart - Software Programming Model
UART Core UART altera_avalon_uart Software Programming Model
Lightweight UART Core UART intel_lw_uart Software Programming Model
JTAG UART Core JTAG altera_avalon_jtag_uart Software Programming Model
Avalon Mailbox Core Other altera_avalon_mailbox - HAL Driver
Avalon Mutex Core Other altera_avalon_mutex - Software Programming Model
Avalon I2C (Host) Core I2C altera_avalon_i2c - Intel FPGA Avalon I2C (Host) Core API
EPCS/EPCQA Serial Flash Controller Core Flash altera_avalon_epcs_flash_controller - Software Programming Model
Serial Flash Controller Core Flash altera_epcq_controller - Nios II and Nios V HAL Drivers
Serial Flash Controller II Core Flash altera_epcq_controller2 - Nios II and Nios V HAL Drivers
Generic QUAD SPI Controller Core Flash altera_generic_quad_spi_controller - Nios II and Nios V HAL Drivers
Generic QUAD SPI Controller II Core Flash altera_generic_quad_spi_controller2 - Nios II and Nios V HAL Drivers
Generic Serial Flash Interface IP Flash intel_generic_serial_flash_interface_top - Intel HAL Driver
On-Chip Flash IP Flash altera_onchip_flash - -
Mailbox Client IP Flash, Other mailbox_client - Nios® II and Nios® V Processors HAL Driver
Interval Timer Core Timer altera_avalon_timer Driver Implementation
Avalon FIFO Memory Core Memory altera_avalon_fifo - Software Programming Model
PIO Core IO altera_avalon_pio Software Programming Model
MAX® 10 Modular ADC IP IO altera_modular_adc - ADC HAL Device Driver for Nios® Processor
MAX® 10 Modular Dual ADC IP IO altera_modular_dual_adc - ADC HAL Device Driver for Nios® Processor
DMA Controller Core DMA altera_avalon_dma - Software Programming Model
Modular Scatter-Gather DMA Core DMA altera_msgdma Driver Implementation
Scatter-Gather DMA Controller Core DMA altera_avalon_sgdma - Software Programming Model
Performance Counter Unit Core Other altera_avalon_performance_counter - Software Programming Model
Vectored Interrupt Controller Core Other altera_vic - Intel FPGA HAL Software Programming Model
System ID Peripheral Core Other alt_avalon_sysid Software Programming Model
The following IP cores are not supported with a Nios processor HAL driver:
  • Avalon-ST Serial Peripheral Interface Core
  • SPI Agent/JTAG to Avalon Host Bridge Cores
  • Intel eSPI Agent Core
  • eSPI to LPC Bridge Core
  • Ethernet MDIO Core
  • I2C Agent to Avalon-MM Host Bridge Core
  • On-Chip Memory IP
  • On-Chip Memory II IP
  • PLL Cores
  • Video Sync Generator and Pixel Converter Cores
  • Interrupt Latency Counter Core
  • GMII to RGMII Converter Core
  • HPS GMII to RGMII Adapter IP
  • MII to RMII Converter Core
  • HPS GMII to TSE 1000BASE-X/SGMII PCS Bridge Core
  • HPS EMAC to Multi-rate PHY GMII Adapter Core
  • MSI to GIC Generator Core
  • Cache Coherency Translator IP
  • Altera ACE5-Lite Cache Coherency Translator