Nios II Classic Software Developer’s Handbook

ID 683282
Date 5/14/2015
Public
Document Table of Contents

4. Nios II Software Build Tools

This chapter describes the Nios® II Software Build Tools (SBT), a set of utilities and scripts that creates and builds embedded C/C++ application projects, user library projects, and board support packages (BSPs). The Nios II SBT supports a repeatable, scriptable, and archivable process for creating your software product.

You can invoke the Nios II SBT through either of the following user interfaces:

  • The Eclipse™GUI
  • The Nios II Command Shell

The purpose of this chapter is to make you familiar with the internal functionality of the Nios II SBT, independent of the user interface employed.

Before reading this chapter, consider getting an introduction to the Nios II SBT by first reading one of the following chapters:
  • "Getting Started with the Graphical User Interface"
  • "Getting Started from the Command Line"

This chapter assumes you are familiar with the following topics:

  • The GNU make utility. Intel FPGA recommends you use version 3.80 or later. On the Windows platform, GNU make version 3.80 is provided with the Nios II EDS.

    You can obtain general information about GNU make from the Free Software Foundation, Inc. website.

  • Board support packages.

Depending on how you use the tools, you might also need to be familiar with the following topics:

  • Micrium MicroC/OS-II.

    For information, refer to MicroC/OS-II - The Real Time Kernel by Jean J. Labrosse (CMP Books).

  • Tcl scripting language.