AN 978: Nios® V Processor Migration Guidelines

ID 773196
Date 5/15/2024
Public
Document Table of Contents

5.6. Data and Instruction Cache

Nios® II/f and Nios® V/g processors support cache.

Table 29.  Cache Comparison Between Nios® V and Nios® II Processors
Cache Nios® V/g Processor Nios® II/f Processor
Instruction Cache
  • 1KB 3
  • 2KB
  • 4KB
  • 8KB
  • 16KB
  • 04
  • 512B
  • 1KB
  • 2KB
  • 4KB
  • 8KB
  • 16KB
  • 32KB
  • 64KB
Data Cache
  • 1KB
  • 2KB
  • 4KB
  • 8KB
  • 16KB
  • 0
  • 512B
  • 1KB
  • 2KB
  • 4KB
  • 8KB
  • 16KB
  • 32KB
  • 64KB
Cache Bypass Method Peripheral Regions
  • Bit-31 cache bypass
  • Cache bypass instructions
  • Peripheral Regions
The processors use the peripheral regions to defined non-cacheable transaction for peripherals such as UART, PIO, DMA, and others. Both Nios® II/f and Nios® V/g processors support peripheral regions. Nios® V/g processor supports two separate peripheral regions, and Nios® II/f processor supports only one.
  • For Nios® II/f processor (with caches enabled), it is optional to use a peripheral region when using peripherals.
  • For Nios® V/g processor, you must place your peripherals in a peripheral region. Failure to do so can cause the processor system to malfunction.

If you do not define the peripherals regions, Platform Designer prompts the following warning message:

No peripheral regions have been defined. If your design contains any peripherals such as UART, PIO, DMA, etc, they must be placed within a peripheral region.

3 Nios® V/g processor requires a minimum allocation of 1KB cache size.
4 You can disable the cache in the Nios® II/f processor.