The Nios® II Embedded Evaluation Kit, Cyclone® III Edition makes evaluating Altera?s embedded solutions easier than ever. A dozen different processor systems targeting the low-cost, low-power Cyclone III FPGA can be evaluated by simply using the LCD Color Touch Panel to scroll through and load your demo of choice.
These processor systems showcase the unique benefits of FPGA-based processors such as reducing BOM costs by integrating powerful graphics engines within the FPGA, reducing operating costs by upgrading your system over the Internet, or increasing system performance while reducing power using -to-Hardware (C2H) acceleration.
The Nios II Embedded Evaluation kit, Cyclone III Edition comes with a comprehensive suite for software development. The Nios II Embedded Design Suite (EDS) as well as sample Nios II processor systems that include full source code.
Get your fix of the latest ready-to-run SD Card demos by downloading them from this site and adding them to the SD Card that comes with the kit. You can also build your own ready-to-run SD Card demos and share them via the ios II Embedded Evaluation Kit Community Wiki.
Design Examples
(1) Design supported by Altera's software partner
Check the Nios II embedded processor design example page to see all available new designs and download them to your kit today.
Evaluation Kit Contents
The Nios II Evaluation Kit, Cyclone III Edition is composed of the
Cyclone III FPGA Starter Kit and an LCD/VGA HSMC daughtercard, and features:
- Embedded USB-Blaster circuitry allowing download of FPGA configuration files via your USB port
- includes an Altera EPM3128A CPLD
- Power and analog devices from Linear Technology
- Switching power supply LTM4603EV-1
- Switching and step-down regulators LTC3413, LT1959
- 32 Mbytes of DDR SDRAM
- 1 Mbyte of synchronous SRAM
- 16 Mbytes of Intel P30/P33 flash
- Clocking; 50-MHz on-board oscillator
- Switches and indicators
- Six push buttons total, four user controlled
- Seven LEDs total, four user controlled
- Color LCD touch-screen display
- 800 x 480 resolution
- 24-bit CD-quality audio CODEC with line-in, line-out, and microphone-in jacks
- 10/100 Ethernet physical layer/media access control (PHY/MAC)
- VGA output
- Composite TV-in
- Audio-out, audio-in, and microphone-in
- Secure digital (SD) card
- Serial connector (RS-232 DB9 port)
- PS/2
- Ethernet connector (RJ-45)
Nios II Evaluation Kit CD-ROM
- Example applications
- Application selector
- Picture viewer
- Mandelbrot acceleration with the Nios C2H compiler
- Web server/remote FPGA configuration
- Hardware tutorials
- Create an FPGA design in one hour
- Build a 32-bit soft processor system inside an FPGA
- Software tutorials
- Complete documentation
- Quick start guide
- User guide
- Reference manual
- Board schematic, layout, and bill of materials
- Product and partner information
Cables and accessories
- 128-Mbyte SD card and USB-to-SD card adapter
- USB cable
- 9-V power supply
- International power cords
- Ethernet (RJ-45) cable (7 ft.)
- Ethernet crossover adapter
Altera Complete Design Suite DVD (free)
Documentation
Table lists the documents available for the Nios II Embedded Evaluation Kit, Cyclone III Edition.