I'm Poki.
I was creating a design that included Nios II and it occurred to me.
If there is a change in the hardware design, it needs to be fully compiled in Quartus II, but if only the software program is changed, there is no change in the hardware...?
If only the software program is changed, there is no hardware change, so there is no need to recompile in Quartus II...?
If that's possible, I wonder if it would reduce the time it would take to update even more?
I've been looking into this...
YES! It can be done!
We can generate a sof file without updating the HDL or netlist, just updating the initial value data to be held in the on-chip RAM.
"If only the software executable is changed..."
Here is a method that is much faster than doing a full compilation!
I have tried it and it takes about 20% less time than a full compilation!
Execute mem_init_generate to change the program content in Nios II SBT and update the initial value data to be held in the on-chip RAM.
After confirming that the QIP has been added, here's how to make short work of it!
First, from Quartus II's Processing menu, click Update Memory Initialization File.
By executing Update Memory Initialization File, you can update only the initialization data of the memory among the results of the previous compilation.
The data from the previous compilation, including placement and routing, will be used, and a netlist file will be generated with only the initialization data updated.
Then click Processing menu > Start > Start Assembler.
This will generate a sof file with only the software executable updated.
Full compilation ( Start Compilation ) will
All of the logic synthesis, placement and routing, programming file creation, and timing analysis are performed.
Start Assembler uses the placed and routed netlist to generate only the programming image (sof file) for the device.
This eliminates the time required for logic synthesis, place-and-route, and timing analysis, resulting in time savings!
Now the executable file works with only one write!
I was also surprised that there was a way to only update the initial data in the sof file!
Please measure how much time you have saved!
You'll be surprised how fast it is!
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