Honored Contributor
Honored ContributorI don't see much information on the 4CE10 starter kit. Usually devboards will come with a CD or software that will have a few reference designs that use the main components.
The very mininimum you need is a PDF of the pinout, so you can see how to hook up the pins in Quartus. I'm assuming you want to play with NIOS and get a simple design running, but you need more memory. QSYS in Quartus is where you can stitch a system together, but a 4CE10 is a pretty small device, so stay with the simplest nios processor and then add an SDRAM controler that will work with you SDRAM chip. You then have to map the QSYS system into your top design and assign all the pins properly. If you don't want a processor, you can still uses qsys to instantiate a sdram controller. But now you need to hack it and learn Avalon bus structures. Or you can look up the data sheet for the SDRAM part, and write a simple controller for your specific needs. All of them are learning opportunities, You may want to look at a Terasic DE0 board. It's a nice little board, and I know they have pretty good reference designs with their kits. Even if you don't buy a board it could give you ideas looking at their reference designs. Pete
