Ashling VS Code Extension for Altera FPGA Software Development
Welcome to the Ashling VS Code Extension for Altera FPGA software development with support for Altera FPGA Arm and Nios V cores.
Features include:
Developed by Ashling for Altera with a full software development toolchain for Altera FPGAs including an IDE, Compiler, Debugger and Trace support.
Fully integrated into Visual Studio Code (VSC) with source-code & project creation, editing, build & debug support.
Supports Altera Agilex, Stratix, Arria and Cyclone FPGA devices.
Works “out-of-the-box” with the Altera Quartus® FPGA Design Software.
Provides software development and debug support for Nios V soft processors based on the RISC-V ISA.
Nios V GCC compiler toolchain fully integrated with support for newlib & picolibc run-time libraries using the Nios V Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL).
Project Manager and Build Manager including Make and CMake support with rapid import, build and debug of Altera Quartus created application frameworks.
Different Cores, One Solution. A single instance of VS Code with the Ashling extension supports simultaneous (“Unified”) debugging of any number of heterogeneous or homogeneous Altera FPGA cores including Nios V and Arm with full core auto-detection support.
Run-time Debug using the Altera FPGA Download Cable II (USB Blaster).
Register Visualization for Nios V and Arm cores.
Zephyr, FreeRTOS and Linux RTOS/OS debug awareness.
Real-time Trace (on-chip and off-chip) support for both Nios V and Arm cores. Off-chip trace requires the Vitra-XS trace probe available from Ashling.
Altera’s Simics® FPGA simulator support (coming soon).
Support for advanced features including Docker Containers, AI-powered coding features found in GitHub Copilot and secure, cloud-based development environments provided by GitHub Codespaces.
Getting Started
For getting started, refer to the APB226-VSCodeExtForAlteraFPGAs.pdf.
Ensure the Altera® Quartus® Tools and Ashling RiscFree IDE (24.4.1 or later) are already installed in the machine.
