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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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15 years ago

DE1 board issues

Hello guys,

I am interested in buying a DE1 board and I would like to know if anyone as a bad suprise with it. Or if you have some feedbacks about your experience with this board.

I am also hesitating between DE1 board and the Cyclone III starter kit. Can someone tell me which one is the most flexible and can be easily extended?

Thanks,

4 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    Hardware wise, most Terasic boards as the DE1 are great. Their price is usually very good as well. Documentation and provided samples, however, are not really so great at all.

    --- Quote Start ---

    I am also hesitating between DE1 board and the Cyclone III starter kit. Can someone tell me which one is the most flexible and can be easily extended?

    --- Quote End ---

    Differences are pretty obvious, I think. DE1 is a multimedia board, it comes with several "plug-in" connectors and interfaces, such as VGA, PS/2, Audio, SD card, etc. The CIII starket Kit has none of them. But on the other hand, it has a newer and bigger FPGA, and more RAM and FLASH.

    The DE1 expansion connectors are standard 40-pin IDE. The CIII kit has an HSMC connector.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    15 years ago

    --- Quote Start ---

    Hello guys,

    I am interested in buying a DE1 board and I would like to know if anyone as a bad suprise with it. Or if you have some feedbacks about your experience with this board.

    --- Quote End ---

    As far as the DE1 is concerned, we are very happy with it. We use it for VGA interfacing, audio codec interfacing and some NIOS stuff. So far it has worked great. I agree with vj that the documentation and samples are not great (for ex., the system CD has the incorrect datasheet for the SDRAM). But there is nothing that has prevented us from maximizing the board potential.

    Don't know about CIII to help you out.

    Bart
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    Well I looked at the comparison between CII and CIII, and I did not see a true difference in performance except for few more memories in CIII.

    I think the DE1 is a good choice with a lower price. Thanks for your help guys,
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    15 years ago

    CIII has some interesting features, e.g. all PLLs can be clocked from one input or PLL dynamic phase shift. If they don't count for your projects, you should be well with CII. For new designs, I would generally choose CIII (or possibly CIV).