What software I need to buy to work with Cyclon III dev. board?

Question

Hi,

I am new in FPGA, but have large experience in HPC and massively-parallel numerical computations.

I need a board for data acquisition and making numerics with this data and thinking about the following board:

http://www.altera.com/products/devkits/altera/kit-cyc3.html

The main question is the budget... Am I right, that I need IPS-EMBEDDED package for $995 if I want to use simple prints to monitors, assessing memory, Ethernet and combining all with my self developed Verilog programs? Should I buy IPS-EMBEDDED ones, or 995$ is per year or per device price?

Should I also buy Quartus II or, for such a development, I can definitely use a web edition for free?

Or if I buy a QuartusII I will have IPS-EMBEDDED included for free?

PS: I do not run it only for evaluation purposes, I want to make heavy acquisition/computation on it in field conditions.

PPS: how to buy IPS-EMBEDDED, I cannot order it online, Farnell and Newark have no such package? I need it surely as the company customer.

Thank you for your kind help.

Sincerely,

Ilghiz

altera_forum · Answer

IPS-EMBEDDED contains the IP components typically used in FPGA based embedded processor systems: NIOS II, DDRx controller, Ethernet stack. As other Altera IP licenses, they are not time limited, but are not guaranteed to work with any future Quartus version.

The Quartus subscription version contains only the memory controllers from IPS-EMBEDDED suite, there have been also special offers of the subscription version that contained a NIOS II license. All-in-all, IPS-EMBEDDED suite is an interesting offer, if you only need the respective IP components, I think. Without a license, you're restricted to time-limited evaluation runs of your design.

In my understanding, the suite can be used with free Quartus Web version without restrictions. There may be an implicite restriction, if Altera decides to require a new license for a new Quartus version someday and you won't be able to receive a new web license for the old Quartus version...

altera_forum · Answer

Hi Ighiz,

for a Cyclone III FPGA, you can use the free Quartus web edition. You'll also need a simulator and here too you can use the free ModelSim-AE web edition.

Just to make sure we're on the same page, an IP core is more or less the equivalent of a software library.

The 995 USD price for the Embedded IP suite is a one time cost. You buy the it and then you can use it forever in your designs.

The Quartus II subscription does include some of those IP cores.

But you can test the IP cores included in the Embedded IP suite for free, so I suggest you don't go an buy it straight away. Unless you have a schedule for spending.

If you have the time to research it, you may want to consider other IP sources than Altera.

For example, at OpenCores.org, you can also find a decent 32-bit CPU and 10/100 Ethernet controller.

There's no free DDR2 controller AFAIK, but there are other comercial ones (Beyond Semi, for example).

altera_forum · Answer

Dear FvM and Rbugalho,

thank you for your kind answers and helps for choosing appropriate hardware and software.

Indeed I need HW+SW solution very fast, to the end of the May, and I am not too bounded with the budget, but I really do not buy something that will be useless, because it is our companies money. It seems that I will take this board and try it for free and hopefully when it works, buy it.

Please, advise me where I can buy it? Just to know right now. Actually, in the area of my development, many components are not available immediately, so I am warred that when I really need it I should wait a lot. I tried in Newark and Farnell (they are listed in Altera distributors) but there was no IPS packages...

Thank you

Ilghiz

altera_forum · Answer

Hi,   you can find a sales representative in your are starting here: http://www.altera.com/corporate/contact/con-index.html

altera_forum · Answer

Yes, you are right... but...

Actually I asked already EBV, did not find it in Farnell and Newark, and it seems that I will wait for quotes several days or weeks and will get instead $995 something like 1995Euro - which is general price politics for hardware/software components in Germany :(

So, if you know where it can be immediately available for $995, it would be helpful!

Sincerely, with greetings from Germany

Ilghiz

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What software I need to buy to work with Cyclon III dev. board?

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