Specifications

The Nios II BSP Generator
This section describes the process by which the Nios II BSP generator adds device drivers and software
packages to your BSP. The Nios II BSP generator, a subset of the Nios II SBT, is a combination of
command utilities and scripts that enable you to create and manage BSPs and their settings.
For more information about the Nios II SBT, refer to the "Overview of Nios II Embedded Development"
chapter.
For more information about the Nios II SBT, refer to the "Getting Started from the Command Line"
chapter.
Related Information
• Overview of Nios II Embedded Development on page 1-1
• Getting Started from the Command Line on page 3-1
Component Discovery
When you run any BSP generator utility, a library of available drivers and software packages is populated.
The BSP generator locates software packages and drivers by inspecting a list of known locations
determined by the Altera Nios II EDS, Quartus II software, and MegaCore
®
IP Library installers, as well as
searching locations specified in certain system environment variables.
The Nios II BSP tools identify drivers and software packages by locating and sourcing Tcl scripts with file
names ending in _sw.tcl in these locations.
Note:
For run-time efficiency, the BSP generator only looks at driver files that conform to the criteria
listed in this section.
After locating each driver and software package, the Nios II SBT searches for a suitable driver for each
hardware module in the hardware system (mastered by the Nios II processor that the BSP is generated
for), as well as software packages that the BSP creator requested.
Device Driver Versions
In the case of device drivers, the highest version of driver that is compatible with the associated hardware
peripheral is added to the BSP, unless specified otherwise by the device driver management commands.
For more information, refer to the "Nios II Software Build Tools Reference" chapter of the Nios II
Software Developer’s Handbook.
Related Information
Nios II Software Build Tools Reference on page 15-1
Device Driver and Software Package Inclusion
Specific Requests
The BSP generator adds software packages to the BSP if they are specifically requested during BSP
generation, with the enable_sw_package command.
For more information, refer to “Software Build Tools Tcl Commands” in the "Nios II Software Build
Tools Reference" chapter.
Related Information
Nios II Software Build Tools Reference on page 15-1
NII5V2
2015.05.14
The Nios II BSP Generator
7-17
Developing Device Drivers for the Hardware Abstraction Layer
Altera Corporation
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