installation of nios II 5.0 Full edition

Hi Larsen,

I've installed Quartus 5.0 and Nios II 5.0 too. You can have two version of Nios installed: I have Quartus 4.2 linked with Nios II 1.1 and Quartus 5.0 linked with Nios II 5.0. You have to update an environment variable each time u run a different Quartus version:

SOPC_KIT_NIOS2=C:\altera\kits\nios2_1_1 (your Nios II path alligned with the Quartus version)

I have created a file .bat to do this.

Yes, the version went from 1.1 --> 5.0 to keep it the same as Quartus. Nios releases are now synchronized with Quartus and this makes it simpler -- one box is shipped to you with the latest release of everything.

As for multiple installations, yes those are allowed and the above post about environment variables is a good suggestion. However, you should be careful to install both Nios & Quartus installations in different folders. For example, my tools are like this:

c:\altera

...nios2_1.1

...nios2_5.0

...quartus2_4.2

...quartus2_5.0

just ensure that those are separated. Installing "on top" of an existing folder will probably break things and is not reccomended (the installer should tell you this as well).

One more thing to be careful with having mulitple installations is that you must make sure your workspaces don't overlap. Also I recommend upgrading your application software to 5.0 by:

1) Create a new system library in 5.0

2) Create a new application project in 5.0

3) Copy over your 1.1 code into your new application project

Creating new projects is quick and easy so it should take a minute or two and save you any headaches you may run into.

Thank you Jesse, Soin and BadOmen for the suggestions and clarifications.

May I suggest that Altera changes the installer for Nios II such that it by default installs into a path with a name reflecting the version at hand. Somewhat along the lines indicated by Jesse,<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

--- Quote Start ---

c:\altera

...nios2_1.1

...nios2_5.0

...quartus2_4.2

...quartus2_5.0[/b]

--- Quote End ---

I think Quartus II does it already (...Altera\Quartus5.0), but as mentioned Nios does not.

If there can be compatibilty problems from one release to the next this is a helpful feature.

Regards,

Hi Larsen,

Good idea! I have filed your suggestion as an enhancement request for a future Nios II release. I cannot guarantee it will be implemented but it will be considered.

I installed5.0sp1 and Nios5.0eval

As noted above, this breaks SOPC builder for previous versions.

The environ var fix noted above did NOT fix the problem. I had to un-install Nios5.0.

I can still see several environ vars that have been changed for 5.0 and were not restored, but at least SOPC seems to work again.

Correction. Even though I have uninstalled QII50, Nios5.0 and re-installed Nios1.0 +sp1, there are still problems. Re-generating my old projects in QII4.1 + SOPC4.1 results in extra pins appearing on certain components. In my case, the LAN91c111 component configured as a shared slave had two extra pins on the symbol, &#39;ardy&#39; and an extra wrn or rdn.

What do I need to do to remove the corrupting touch of Nios5.0, re-install QII4.0 too?

Have the old projects I&#39;ve opened been permanently corrupted? What a pain.

Bear in mind I did all my installations to differently named folders and still have this cross-contamination.

If there is a real solution to having the different versions co-exist, I&#39;d sure like to know.

Some components have been changed between versions so that&#39;s why you are seeing pin changes. I don&#39;t recommend going back and forth with the tools because of this reason. If you want to be absolutely sure you have a clean install of any Windows program you should uninstall it, delete the folder it was previously installed to (usually uninstallers leave something behind), install the new tools with a new folder name (i.e. nios2_5_0 for example).

If you have a design for one set of tools and you start going back and forth between different tool versions you are playing with fire. The errata has some information about parallel installs I think but do yourself a favour and stick to one.

If I have already messed up a project by opening it under 5.0, I need to know how to recover.

If all I need to do is to delete and re-add the components, thats fine, but I am not finding the list of

components that are affected by this change. I know the Lan91C111 is one. Are there others?

Is is only avalon slaves?