Altera Stratix4 GX Dev Kit 530 vs Terasic DE4

Hi all,

I need some inputs. I am looking for a dev kit of Stratix 4 to interface with wireless RF I/O link, saving to storage through SATA port and getting input from ADC (HSMC) in real time.

Question 1:

I have a question. The Altera one cost about $8000 whereas Terasic's is $3000.

Apart from a few differences in specs, Terasic's one has include more feature such as SATA ports.

Is there any reason?

Question 2:

For DE4, is there any free IPCore (Nios, Sata etc.) included or we have to purchase Quartus II, Modelsim, preferred IP cores seperately? How about Altera dev kit in this case, they included in the bundle which mark up the price?

It is because I can see Altera Dev Kit is not bundle with any other hardware except the main kit only. So perhaps DE4 is a better choice.

Any suggestion?

Thanks.