Altera Corporation

Iain Scott

Andrew Martyn Draper

Paul Riley

Chris Dettmar

Clive Davies

An operating system for a processor in a hardware device is configured by reading data defining a configuration of the hardware device. Based on the defined configuration of the hardware device, it is determined which operating system configuration options, from a plurality of available operating system configuration options, are valid. Then, only the valid operating system configuration options are presented to a user. The hardware device may be a fixed hardware platform, or may be a configurable hardware device such as an FPGA. The data defining the configuration of the hardware device can be read from a high level design entry tool.

Techniques for configuring an embedded processor operating system

A reconfigurable programmable logic system including a programmable logic device and an associated processor is configured using a configuration file including (a) instructions for configuring the programmable logic device as one or more peripherals to be used by the processor, and (b) a list of the peripherals to be configured in the programmable logic. The processor uses the peripheral data from the configuration file to load the appropriate drivers, create all necessary instances of the drivers and optionally to pass parameters for any necessary initial command after each driver is loaded. Optionally, each time the system is configured, any previously loaded drivers are first unloaded.

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Witney, United Kingdom

Iain Scott