Nios® II Processor Reference Guide

ID 683836
Date 8/28/2023
Public
Document Table of Contents

5.3.4. Tightly-Coupled Memory

The Nios II/s core provides optional tightly-coupled memory interfaces for instructions. A Nios II/s core can use up to four tightly-coupled instruction memories. When a tightly-coupled memory interface is enabled, the Nios II core includes an additional memory interface master port. Each tightly-coupled memory interface must connect directly to exactly one memory slave port.

When tightly-coupled memory is present, the Nios II core decodes addresses internally to determine if requested instructions reside in tightly-coupled memory. If the address resides in tightly-coupled memory, the Nios II core fetches the instruction through the tightly-coupled memory interface. Software does not require awareness of whether code resides in tightly-coupled memory or not.

Accessing tightly-coupled memory bypasses cache memory. The processor core functions as if cache were not present for the address span of the tightly-coupled memory. Instructions for managing cache, such as initi and flushi, do not affect the tightly-coupled memory, even if the instruction specifies an address in tightly-coupled memory.