User guide

Nios II IDE Help System

Hardware Simulation with ModelSim

The Nios II development environment is integrated with the ModelSim hardware simulator,

which allows the Nios II IDE to launch programs on a hardware simulation of a Nios II

processor system. Hardware simulation allows you to simulate cycle-accurate behavior of a

Nios II processor system. Using your PC, you can see how an SOPC Builder system will behave

in hardware, including signals internal to the processor and interface signals to the outside

world.

ModelSim simulation is generally the domain of hardware engineers. ModelSim requires

hardware design files, and therefore the ModelSim simulation process is linked closely with

SOPC Builder. You can only launch ModelSim from the Nios II IDE if the target SOPC Builder

system was generated in SOPC Builder with the ModelSim simulation option enabled. You

must also turn on ModelSim only, no hardware support in the system library properties.