Purchase Intel FPGA Board

Dear JohnT;

Thank you for your reply.

I was overlooking the kit that you had pointed me to. I have a few questions about the kit that I think only you can answer.

Years ago, I bought a Brevia FPGA development board, (Lattice Semiconductor), and it was advertised to have free software. One year later, the license expired and I discovered that my license was not free. To continue developing on my kit, I had to purchase their software at an unbelievable price. That experience was a very rude surprise.

Learning from that experience, I have to pose these questions because the link(s) that you pointed me to do not elaborate upon costs and if I click on link to get more information, I get a "server error" see attachments. My questions are in two parts, one part concerns the development tools and the other question concerns the "free" Quartus download.

First question: How do the "development tools" augment the "free" Quartus download and how does it differ (do I require these tools to develop on the "cyclone" board that you had pointed me to)? Are the software "development tools" free?

2nd question: Is the free Quartus download license free and does it ever expire?