license for older Quartus II

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I am in the situation where I need to use Cyclone II and Cylone IV FPGA. I found the latest Quartus II version doesn't support Cyclone II. So what version can I use (12.0?) and can I get the license for this older version? or can I purchase the license of latest software and "downgrade" it to older version?

Thanks

Leon

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I use Quartus 13.0sp1 to support my use of the Cyclone II part. The free version works just fine, no license needed.

For Cyclone IV I happen to use Quartus 16.0 (again the free version) and the newer version 17.x still support this device family I believe.

You can download the above versions from the Altera software tools download pages.

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However the unlicensed Quartus cannot generate the programming file (.sof), can it?

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Yes it can. It would make no sense at all if it couldn't.

In my particular case I use the quartus_cpf tool to pack the generated .sof file into a .jic file so I can use the programmer to program the attached flash config device thru JTAG.

The free quartus tools only support the smaller cyclone parts.

For larger parts (or stratix or arria) you will need a paid licence. But a licence should cover you for all quartus versions.