Floating Point and Fixed Point.

I wouldnt recommend using the new IEEE floating point library just yet - you're unlikely to get any pipelining in the functions. A single floating point add takes several clock cycles to run at a decent speed, and a divide/square root takes tens of clock cycles to complete at a decent speed. The IEEE functions will all complete in a single clock cycle, so you will not get a decent FMax out of them.

Stick with the altera FP library for now - it is the most optimised for altera products anyway. You dont have to use the mega function, just add the lines:

LIBRARY altera_mf;

USE altera_mf.altera_mf_components.all;

to the top of your design, and you can call in components manually from the library. If you go to help->megafunctions LPM, it will tell you the use of all the ports and generics.

On the other hand, the IEEE fixed point library is a godsend. No more scrabbling around with unsigned and signed types.