Nios II Classic Processor Reference Guide

ID 683620
Date 10/28/2016
Public
Document Table of Contents

5.3.3.1. Instruction and Data Master Ports

The instruction master port is a pipelined Avalon® Memory-Mapped ( Avalon® -MM) master port. If the core includes data cache with a line size greater than four bytes, then the data master port is a pipelined Avalon® -MM master port. Otherwise, the data master port is not pipelined.

The instruction and data master ports on the Nios II/f core are optional. A master port can be excluded, as long as the core includes at least one tightly-coupled memory to take the place of the missing master port.

Note: Although the Nios® II processor can operate entirely out of tightly-coupled memory without the need for Avalon® -MM instruction or data masters, software debug is not possible when either the Avalon® -MM instruction or data master is omitted.

Support for pipelined Avalon® -MM transfers minimizes the impact of synchronous memory with pipeline latency. The pipelined instruction and data master ports can issue successive read requests before prior requests complete.