DE0-Nano-SoC develop environment, free version of IDE?

Hi,

IMHO, MAX10 FPGAs are the low end of Altera FPGAs. The Neek board is complex because of the amount of stuff in it. It is not an entry level board. The DE0-Nano-SoC is just as complex because the Cyclone V FPGA has a dual hardware processor in it. Again, IMHO, not an entry level board.

Altera's IDE is Quartus Prime. There is a Lite version (free). I think the hardware processor system (HPS) in the Cyclone V needs another piece of software for programming. Sorry, it's been a while since I looked at all this before settling into a BeMicro MAX10 for myself.

I don't mean to be rude but you should have been able to gather this much info by reading about the board/FPGA you want to use. There is plenty of info in the Altera site. Perhaps this is an indication of how complex the task you're trying to accomplish is. Don't be discouraged though. This takes time and effort. Good luck.

Quartus Lite comes with everything needed to work with the SoC ARM processor. You will need to separately download the embedded development package separately (at no charge). This will give you what you need to develop Linux applications and kernel drivers. This is the ARM DS-5 eclipse based environment. The free version does NOT include the ability to develop stand alone software for the ARM. My understanding is that others have found ways around this, but I've not this, so I haven't investigated.

Having said all this, I don't recommend an SoC based board for a beginning hardware engineer who wants to develop Verilog/VHDL. Instead get a Non SoC based board in the same price range. You will find it has a larger FPGA and probably more stuff on the development board.

I use WIN7/WIN8 to develop the DE0-Nano-SOC board.

If you have interest in the design tool Quartus II, just go https://www.altera.com/products/design-software/fpga-design/quartus-prime/download.html, you will find the so-called Lite Edition.

FPGA is fantastic in a way, while for a new beginner , it may have a long way to go, actually, you may retrospect some threads for very useful tips, I've find something cool here. ; )