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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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11 years ago

Cyclone I - which Quartus II Version

Hi folks,

I don't know what to do anymore. First I downloaded the newest Version of Quartus II just to notice that it doesn't support the cyclone i. Then I downloaded the 13.0 version and after another 10Gb I noticed that it isn't just a 30days trial , but also can't generate output files.

I'm a physicist and most of the time I build something with vacuum tubes, sometimes with parts from before WW2. So I'm not used to the term "obsolete". But on the ALtera website I always stumble across this word.

At the moment it is my job to tell a very little bit about FPGAs to a small group of people. I have a cyclone i (ONE) board here. I just want play around a bit.

please tell me what kind of Quartus II version (offline and web) do I need to get code on that thing. No I certainly WILL NOT spend like a fortune on that software. It's purely just for educational reason and need it just for a few days. There is no info I could find about coding the Cyclone I.

Thanks in advance - I'm really desperate at the moment.

PS: I'm doing lots of electronic stuff at the university. Spice engines, ALTIUM designer and numerous other apps. But this was new. Geeeeeeezzzz is it the same with Xilinx or Lattice ?

3 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    11 years ago

    --- Quote Start ---

    Hi folks,

    I don't know what to do anymore. First I downloaded the newest Version of Quartus II just to notice that it doesn't support the cyclone i. Then I downloaded the 13.0 version and after another 10Gb I noticed that it isn't just a 30days trial , but also can't generate output files.

    --- Quote End ---

    The Cyclone series are supported by the free web editions ... I just fired up 12.1sp1 (full-edition) and it still has Cyclone I support.

    I don't recall when support was dropped, but if you go to the download center, there is an option to select software by device

    https://www.altera.com/download/sw/dnl-sw-index.jsp

    and (strangely), there it says web edition dropped Cyclone I at 11.0sp1. I guess they drop support sooner in the free version.

    --- Quote Start ---

    I'm a physicist and most of the time I build something with vacuum tubes, sometimes with parts from before WW2.

    --- Quote End ---

    Awesome! I "rescued" a few thousand tubes that I have lying around in boxes that I must look at some day ...

    --- Quote Start ---

    At the moment it is my job to tell a very little bit about FPGAs to a small group of people.

    --- Quote End ---

    What do you need to tell them about?

    Click on some of the links here ...

    http://www.ovro.caltech.edu/~dwh/correlator/cobra_docs.html

    http://www.ovro.caltech.edu/~dwh/carma_board/index.html

    http://www.ovro.caltech.edu/~dwh/wbsddc/index.html

    The zip files have PowerPoint slides you can use.

    --- Quote Start ---

    Geeeeeeezzzz is it the same with Xilinx or Lattice ?

    --- Quote End ---

    Yep. Xilinx has two tools, Vivado and ISE, whereas for Lattice I think I have used at least three tools, Diamond, ispLevel, and another tool for the devices they picked up from Silicon Blue.

    Ignore the tools. They're ok. Make your FPGA selection based on the support groups. This one is good, so you made the right vendor choice :)

    Cheers,

    Dave
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    11 years ago

    @bertulus: Thanks for your reply, it works ! :)

    @dwh@ovro.caltech.edu

    Hi Dave,

    I got it working now, took some time, but worth the effort :) Tried some VHDL things today. Works beautiful.

    It's just a short presentation about FPGAs in general and what these thing are capable of. So I will just present a few gates and flipflops and tell about the internals. What I'm still looking for is a project what really needs an FPGA and can't be done by a µC. There are lots of projects like this: http://people.ece.cornell.edu/land/courses/ece5760/finalprojects/s2014/jsw267/html/html/ which are stunning, but it seems that these are just to proove that one can use intelligent logic instead of software even when it's harder to implement. I'm looking for applications which actually need FPGAs because of massive parallel data conversion or real time requirements.

    The links you gave are amazing. This CARMA Board is an impressive project.

    Best regards, Simon