Quartus II 13.1 CPLD device support

Thank you. I will give version 13.0 a try.

Yes, it was a typo. It was supposed to be EPM and not EMP.

Yes. Altera has started dropping legacy family support from the latest versions of Quartus.

If there are any Altera Software managers viewing this: I understand why you want to remove the devices from the software for download size. But a MUCH better solution is to have Quartus automatically download the specific device files from a repository when you want to use them, instead of removing them completely.

You are creating a nightmare for companies having to deal with legacy and new development. I would much rather have a 5 minute penalty the first time I use a new device instead of downloading multiple GB of devices I'll never use, then having to maintain multiple versions of Quartus to keep some legacy devices supported. Don't remove a device from support, until the devices can no longer be purchased.

Having version of the software for specific families is also not a good idea. Why should I have to install 2 versions Quartus 13.1 just because I want to play with some Arria 10's? Much better, have the Arria 10 listed, and if I select it for a design, it downloads the specific parts device files.

This would also fix the issue where your quartus and devices versions don't match. IE when installing a Service Patch, often the devices are updated as well. But may not get installed. This causes issues as well.

My mini rant.

Pete

Pete

Hi Pete,

there is another thread dealing with the (removed) device support.

(http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42758&page=1)

Up to now it seems like you really have to either update all your hardware at time ALTERA decides to drop the device support (likewise with Cyclone II and QII 13.1) or keeping the hardware is keeping the latest QII version supporting this device. As ALTERA (and others) did announce shorter compilation times and added features in newer versions, this advertisements are useless if you can't use the SW at all... I'm not really happy with dropping device support and the newest "trend" of device specific versions like the "Arria 10 Edition" makes me headache...

I really wonder if in some years you have to have

* a bunch of versions of QII if you have more than one hardware if each device family gets an own edition / old devices are not supported in new QII like new devices are not in old QII

(nice brain practice to recall which feature has been introduced in which version or what workarounds were requried with the "old" QII)

* more than one Operation system installed if the newest QII (required for the new HW) does not work on older versions of the OS and vice versa (or use Virtual machines if possible)

* more than one PC, if for example you cannot have the old OS installed on a PC connected to company network for safety reasons

...

Well.. Future will tell

Since this info is in the same vein, I'll post it inline (I received this yesterday)

--- Quote Start ---

Dear Altera University Program Member:

We are writing to provide some important information about the released versions of Altera's Quartus II software, and whether these versions support the Altera University Program Development and Education FPGA boards that are used by many universities.

Quartus II version 13.0sp1 supports all Altera University Program FPGA boards, which includes: DE0, DE0-Nano, DE1, DE2, DE2-115, DE3, DE4, and DE5-Net. Although new versions of the Quartus II software will be developed and released each year by Altera, Quartus II V13.0sp1 will continue to be maintained and updated for the foreseeable future. Universities that are using the DE1 and/or DE2 boards should continue to use Quartus II V13.0sp1, as explained below.

The Quartus II software starting from version 13.1 does not include support for the Cyclone II family of FPGAs, which are used on the DE1 and DE2 boards. This is the reason why universities that are using the DE1/DE2 boards should continue to use Quartus II V13.0sp1. As mentioned above, Quartus II V13.0sp1 will continue to be provided, updated, and maintained for the foreseeable future, and will thus continue to provide full support for the DE1 and DE2 boards. (Note that the DE2-115 board uses the Cyclone IV family, and so is not affected.)

Finally, we would like to inform you that starting in Quartus II version 14.0 there will no longer be support for 32-bit computers (Quartus II V14.0 can only be used on 64 bit computers), and also there will no longer be support for the Cyclone III devices (used on DE0 boards), and Stratix III devices (used on DE3 boards). Users of the DE0 and DE3 boards should continue to use Quartus II V13.1, or earlier.

--- Quote End ---

Thanks for the note.. Moving to 64 bit compiler only makes sense. Most of us are already there, but they are basically making support a nightmare.

Cyclone III and Stratix III are the main stream devices in production now.. (Most of our designs are Cyclone III, we never really moved to Cyclone IV, because it never showed any appreciable advantage for our designs)

Current new designs are Cyclone V, but I have tons of Cyclone III designs I need to support for years to come.

Ugh.

A small consolation is that you can;

1. Use VirtualBox to install old versions of Quartus (inside old OSes if necessary)

2. "Share" your local hard drive, so that you can access source files without having to copy them to the VM

3. "Capture" a USB-Blaster if you want to download and or debug from within the VM.

Though it might be possible to download and run something like SignalTap II with a newer version of Quartus ... I have not tested this option.

I've been using this scheme to deal with FLEX10K designs (Quartus 9.0sp2), so I guess I'll just add a few more VMs ... :)

Cheers,

Dave

Hi,

I wonder if maintaining and updating different Version of QII really is more easier than integrating older devices in the newer QII Version, but that might mainly depends on the basic structure of the Software and is something ALTERA has to (and had) decide(d) ;-)